PH 380 Intermediate Electricity and Magnetism

Fall 2009 course information

Office Hours
My official office hours are usually posted on my web page and outside my door. However, please feel free to stop by my office at any time. I encourage you to ask as many questions as you can, both during class and in office hours. You are also welcome to contact me by email or by phone.

Overview and Goals
The heart of Electromagnetism is four equations called Maxwell's equations. They paint the northern lights across our sky; they govern electronic devices like cell phones and computers; they send signals through cables to your television; they build the magnetic field of the earth; they generate the colors of the rainbow; and they provide the complicated mechanism of frictional forces. They are closely connected with the concepts of relativity, and the inner workings of atoms and molecules. Whether your aim is to create new devices or to understand the universe better, electromagnetism is an essential area of physical knowledge. Our aim will be to build up the ability to work with Maxwell's equations and to solve physical problems with them.

Text
The required text is Introduction to Electrodynamics, 3rd Edition, by D.J. Griffiths. Please read the text as the course progresses. It may seem that the lectures are sufficient to get all you need to do the homework, but it is important to read beyond the lectures. The lectures will follow the text closely, and so it should be possible to integrate the material in the text with the lectures and notes.

Homework
There will be regular homework assignments due about once a week. Late homework will be penalized by about 10% per day. The final deadline for any homework to be graded is one week after the due date; after that it will not be graded.

The mathematics underlying electromagnetism is vector calculus. It involves vector fields (electric field, magnetic field), differential operations (gradient, curl, and divergence), various integral theorems (divergence theorem, Stokes' theorem), and much more. You need to be familiar with rectangular coordinates, spherical polar coordinates, and cylindrical coordinates. It is important to keep up with the homework. You will find it difficult to understand the lectures without doing the homework. If you really want to learn physics, the key lies in working out lots of problems. Please be responsible for you own learning process. Try to develop the habit of sitting down several times each week to work on the problems. Remember, getting stuck and figuring out the solution through persistence is an excellent way to learn. It is also useful to talk to me about how to do a problem if you are unable to start it, or are getting frustrated. I don't expect you to do everything without any help. 

Exams and quizzes
Depending on the nature of the material, short quizzes will be given at the start of some classes. To do well on these, you will need to keep up with the lecture material and with reading the text book. I expect to have two class tests and a final exam. The dates will be discussed in class.
The final exam is scheduled for Thursday December 10th from 8:00 am until 9:50 am. 

Final Grade
The final grade will be determined using the following weighting.

Note: Poor attendance or poor punctuality will be penalized by a reduction in the calculated grade of up to 10%.

NMU    Neil Russell