Course Syllabus

PHYS301 Electricity and Magnetism

Lecturer: Fei Zhou, Physics and Astronomy Department, UBC

Where and When: M W F 1300 -1400 in Henn.202

Office Hours: T 1430-1530 in Henn 345

Preparation: Vector Analysis

1) Differential Calculus: Gradient, divergence and Curl

2) Integral Calculus: Line, Surface and Volume integrals

PART I: Electrostatics

Session 1 Basics

1) Coulomb’s Law and Continuous Charge distribution

2) Gauss’s Law and differential properties of electric fields (Curl and Divergence)

3) Poisson’s Equation, Laplace’s Equation, Boundary conditions and Uniqueness theorem

Session 2 Applications

1) Electric fields of a given charge distribution with spherical, cylindrical and plane symmetries

2) Electric fields near a perfect conductor and image charges

3) Electric potentials as solutions to Poisson’s Equation

4) Multipole expansion of electric potentials

5) Electric fields in matter: polarization and electric displacement

6) Energy in dielectric systems

PART II: Magnetostatics

Session I Basics

1) Biot-Savart Law

2) The Curl and Divergence of B

3) Ampere’s Law

4) Vector potential and magnetostatic scalar potential

Session II Applications

1) Magnetic fields of current distributions with symmetries

2) Magnetic fields in Matter: magnetization

3) Introduction to magnetism in matter

4) Lorentz forces on charges and forces/torques on Magnetic objects

PART III: Electrodynamics

Session I Basics

1) Electromotive force and Flux rule

2) Faraday’s Law and induced Electric field

3) Energy in magnetic fields

4) Maxwell’s equation

5) Poynting theorem and the energy density of EM fields

6) Maxwell’s stress tensor and the momentum of EM fields

Session II Applications (optional)

1) EM waves in Vacuum

2) Reflection and Transmission of EM waves

3) Wave Guides

4) Radiation

Session III Relativistic Electrodynamics (optional)

Textbook: D. Griffiths “Introduction to Electrodynamics” 3/e, 1999 (Prentice Hall).

Other Reading Materials:

E. Purcell “Electricity and Magnetism”, Berkeley Physics Course Vol.2, 1985 (McGraw-Hill, Inc.)

R. Feynman, The Feynman Lectures on Physics Vol. 2, 1964 (Addison-Wesley )

J. Jackson, Classical Electrodynamics, 1975 (Wiley and Sons, Inc)

Requirement

1) Homework will be assigned on each Wednesday; all assignments are due at 1400pm of the coming Wednesdays (unless specified).

2) Solutions will be posted after the deadline 1400pm every Wednesday and no late HW assignments will be accepted.

3) There will be all together 10 HW assignments, one mid-term and one final exam.

HW: 20 %; Mid: 30; Final: 50%.