Lecture schedule¶
Twenty-eight meetings, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11:00 AM – 12:20 PM.
Read before class
Each meeting has an assigned chapter. Read it before the lecture — there is a short reading check due beforehand, and the pace of this course assumes you arrive already having met the vocabulary.
Where this is going
The course runs in textbook order, chapters 21 through 36, and it is built as one argument. Electricity and magnetism turn out to be two aspects of a single interaction; that is settled in chapter 32, where Maxwell's equations are completed. Chapter 33 then draws the conclusion — light is an electromagnetic wave — and chapters 34 to 36 are what follows from it.
Unit I — Electrostatics¶
| Date | # | Chapter | Topics |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8/25 | 1 | 21 | Course introduction, WileyPLUS setup; Coulomb's law, charge is quantized, charge is conserved |
| 8/27 | 2 | 22 | The electric field; field of a charged particle, of a dipole, of a line of charge |
| 9/1 | 3 | 22 | Field of a charged disk; a point charge in a field; a dipole in a field |
| 9/3 | 4 | 23 | Electric flux; Gauss' law; the charged isolated conductor |
| 9/8 | 5 | 23 | Applying Gauss' law: cylindrical, planar and spherical symmetry |
| 9/10 | 6 | 24 | Electric potential; equipotential surfaces; potential of a charged particle and of a dipole |
| 9/15 | 7 | 24 | Potential of a continuous charge distribution; calculating the field from the potential; potential energy of a system of charges |
| 9/17 | 8 | — | Review session — practice exam handed out |
| 9/22 | 9 | — | 🖊 Exam 1 — chapters 21–24 |
Unit II — Circuits and magnetic fields¶
| Date | # | Chapter | Topics |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9/24 | 10 | 25 | Capacitance; calculating capacitance; capacitors in parallel and in series |
| 9/29 | 11 | 25 | Energy stored in an electric field; capacitors with a dielectric |
| 10/1 | 12 | 26 | Electric current; current density; resistance and resistivity |
| 10/6 | 13 | 26 | Ohm's law; power in electric circuits; semiconductors and superconductors |
| 10/8 | 14 | 27 | Single-loop circuits; multiloop circuits and Kirchhoff's rules |
| 10/13 | — | — | 🍂 fall break 🍂 |
| 10/15 | 15 | 27 | The ammeter and the voltmeter; RC circuits |
| 10/20 | 16 | 28 | Magnetic fields and the definition of B; crossed fields; the Hall effect; circulating charges; force on a current-carrying wire; torque on a loop; the magnetic dipole moment |
| 10/22 | 17 | — | Review session — practice exam handed out |
| 10/27 | 18 | — | 🖊 Exam 2 — chapters 25–28 |
Unit III — Magnetic fields from currents, and induction¶
| Date | # | Chapter | Topics |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10/29 | 19 | 29 | Magnetic field due to a current (Biot–Savart); force between parallel currents; Ampère's law; solenoids and toroids |
| 11/3 | 20 | 30 | Faraday's law and Lenz's law; induction and energy transfers; induced electric fields |
| 11/5 | 21 | 30 | Inductors and inductance; self-induction; RL circuits; energy stored in a magnetic field |
Unit IV — Oscillations, AC circuits and Maxwell's equations¶
| Date | # | Chapter | Topics |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11/10 | 22 | 31 | LC oscillations; damped oscillations in an RLC circuit; forced oscillations of three simple circuits |
| 11/12 | 23 | 31 → 32 | The series RLC circuit; power in AC circuits. Then Gauss' law for magnetic fields; induced magnetic fields; the displacement current — Maxwell's equations complete |
Unit V — Light and optics¶
| Date | # | Chapter | Topics |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11/17 | 24 | 33 | Electromagnetic waves; the Poynting vector; radiation pressure; polarization and Malus' law. Light is an electromagnetic wave. |
| 11/19 | 25 | 33 → 34 | Reflection and refraction (Snell's law); total internal reflection; polarization by reflection (Brewster's angle). Then images and plane mirrors; spherical mirrors |
| 11/24 | — | — | 🦃 no class 🦃 |
| 11/26 | — | — | 🦃 Thanksgiving 🦃 |
| 12/1 | 26 | 34 → 35 | Spherical refracting surfaces; thin lenses; optical instruments. Then light as a wave |
| 12/3 | 27 | 35 → 36 | Young's double-slit experiment; double-slit intensity. Then single-slit diffraction and its intensity |
| 12/8 | 28 | 36 | The circular aperture; diffraction by a double slit; diffraction gratings. Final review; practice exam handed out |
Final exam¶
| Date | Time | Coverage |
|---|---|---|
| Saturday 12/12 | 11:30 AM – 2:30 PM | Cumulative, chapters 21–36 |
Only three days after the last class
The last lecture is Tuesday December 8 and the final is Saturday December 12. The December 8 meeting is the only review session, and the study guide will be posted well before then. Plan your revision accordingly — do not count on a long run-up during finals week.