Download Physics 422: Electricity and Magnetism II, Spring 2017 http://physics

Physics 422: Electricity and Magnetism II, Spring 2017
http://physics.wustl.edu/buckley/422/
Class time:
TR, 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM, Crow 206
Instructor:
Prof. James Buckley
Office: Compton 253, 935-7607, [email protected]
Office Hours: Tues 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM
Wed 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
TA:
Leandro Medina de Oliveira
Office: TBD
Office Hours: TBD
Textbook:
Introduction to Electrodynamics, 3rd edition, David J. Griffiths
Other Useful Texts:
Electromagnetic Fields, Wangsness
Div Grad Curl and All That, Shey
Radiative Processes in Astrophysics, Rybicki and Lightman
The second course in a two part series covering the classical theory
of electricity and magnetism. Topics include application of Maxwell’s
equations to dielectric and magnetic materials, generation and propagation of electromagnetic waves, reflection, refraction, waveguides, antennas. Prerequisites: Phys 421 or permission of instructor.
Course Description:
Grading:
Your final grade will be based on 3 parts: one midterm exam (35%), your total
homework grade (30%), and a final exam (35%)
Exams:
There will be one in-class midterm exam and one cumulative final. The date of the exams
will be announced in class, two weeks in advance. Exams will cover material from the reading
assignments, from your homework, as well as other material presented in class.
Homework:
I will typically announce reading assignments after each lecture, and homework problems on
Thursday, due the following Thursday. Homework is due at the beginning of class, since I
may return the solution sets or discuss some of the homework in class the day it is due. Each
regular homework problem is worth 10 points. Graded homework will typically be returned
on the following Tuesday.
Electricity and magnetism is a subject that builds up in mathematical complexity throughout
the two semester course. It is very easy for students to become lost if they do not make a
significant effort with all of the homework assignments, and keep up with the material. I
encourage all of you to make a substantial effort to solve all of the problems on your own
before you consult with other students or look up solutions on the internet. If you do work
with others, you must still turn in your own original work. After an assignment is handed
back with the solution set, you have the opportunity to use the solution set to correct and
complete your homework and resubmit it the following week (due Tuesday, one week after
the homework is returned). The grader will then assign a new grade based on the average
of your original grade and the grade of the corrected homework. To further encourage you
to keep up with the homework, one problem on each exam will be taken directly from a
homework assignment.
Outline:
This course will pick up where Physics 421 ended (roughly the end of Chapter 6 in Griffith’s
book). I will assume that you are acquainted with vector calculus, electrostatics and magnetostatics. This course will cover material in chapters 8 through 12, plus some supplemental
material including:
• review of Faraday’s law, Maxwell’s equations (chapter 7),
• relativistic transformation of fields,
• conservation laws, energy and momentum, Maxwell’s stress tensor (ch. 8),
• transmission lines and antennas,
• electromagnetic waves in vacuum (9.2),
• electromagnetic waves in matter, reflection and refraction (9.3),
• electromagnetic waves in conductors (absorption and dispersion) (9.4),
• waveguides and microwave devices (9.5),
• fields of moving charges (retarded potentials) (10),
• radiation, dipole, arbitrary source (antennas), radiation reaction (11),
• electrodynamics and relativity (12.1, 12.2),
• covariant notation for electrodynamics (12.3),
• special topics (pulsars, axions, etc.).