Office Hours Monday 1:00-2:00 pm,Thursday 1:00-2:00 pm. https://washington.zoom.us/j/367141034
Text book- Griffiths (G), Introduction to Electrodynamics, 4th edition. The general goal is to provide you with the mathematical tools and physics experience that will enable you to use E & M to uncover the mysteries of Nature, to solve practical problems, to do well on exams, and eventually to use during your ultimate gainful employment. Please email to me if this is NOT available to you in your current location.
Goals of course: Successful completion of the course should result in a student gaining a professional ability to solve a wide variety of technical problems involving using advanced math. In particular, this quarter we all aim to gain understanding of various aspects of how electromagnetic waves propagate in dielectric and conducting media, the scalar and vector potential, electromagnetic radiation and the theory of relativity as applied to electrodynamics. Heavy emphasis will be placed on problem solving and mathematical methods learned in previous math and physics courses will be employed. We shall also discuss some modern physics topics within the context of E & M
Readings chapter numbers are from Griffiths, 4th edition.
Approximate schedule:
March 31, April 2,- 9.3.1, 7.3.6, 9.3.2
April 7, 9 Absorption and Dispersion 9.4
April 14 16. Guided waves 9.5, potentials and gauges 10.1 UTube cavity example
April 21 Midterm 1, not sure how to do this as of March 20, stay tuned
April 23 Retarded and advanced potentials 10.2
Aoril 28, 30 Fields of a moving point charge. 10.3
May 5 7. Radiation 11.1
May 12 14 Point charges,radiation reaction 11.2
May 19 Midterm 2
May 21 Special relativity 12.1
May 26 ,28 Relativistic mechanics & conversion of mass into energy 12.2
June 2, 4 Transforming fields and the tensor form of electrodynamics 12.3
June 10, Comprehensive Final Exam 10:30-12:20 ????
Homework (HW) will be assigned every week due in CANVAS on Tuesday before 11am.The solutions will be posted shortly thereafter. This homework is to be worked out completely. Two problems of each HW set will be graded. Late HW will not be accepted. Doing the assigned problems is probably the most important ingredient in learning the material, and your scores on these represent 20 % of the grade. You may, and should discuss the HW problems with fellow students, but the solutions must be your own. It is necessary to hand in the homework on time in class on the due date. This is because solutions will be posted soon after class. The use of Mathematica, or other electronic tools, to solve homework problems is generally encouraged, and some HW sets may require the use of such tools. If you use Mathematica or Matlab, your notebook must be provided along with the HW. There will be two midterms, each worth a total of 80 points (4 questions, 20 points each) and 110 points for the comprehensive final (2x25 + 3x20). The exams will total 60% of the course grade Tutorial work is 20% of the grade. Given the current situation, with remote teaching and different internet environments for different students, I (in consultation with Bert) have decided to make the exams take-home. They will be open book, open notes, open internet, and calculators allowed. You will have to do the exams individually and sign a statement to the effect that the exams are your own work and done without collaboration with anyone else. A failure to sign the statement will lead to a failure to grade the exam and a 0 grade. The exam will be posted on the class web site on 9 am of the day of the exam and you will have 24 hours to complete the exam. This ultra-long time span is meant to account for any and all effects that could cause a delay. In the unfortunate event that you become ill, please let me know.
If you make an honest effort on ALL of the problems in a given set, you will receive a minimum score of 2. Two of the problems will be graded in detail, for four points each. Thus each HW set counts 10 points. Solutions will be posted soon after class, so that you can check your solutions while they are fresh in your mind.
Please make sure that you write your name and tutorial section on your first HW page. Graded HW will be returned in the tutorial sections.
Holidays May 25 Midterm Exams; 9am Tues April 21, 9am Tues May 19, Final 10:30-12:20. June 10
Scheduling issues: