Spring 2016
PHYS 360 (Electricity and Magnetism I) Course Information
Dr. AKM Newaz
Objective:
The aim of this course is to make students familiar with the basic concepts and methods of
electromagnetism, and Maxwell’s equations. The first half of this course covers electrostatics and
magnetostatics. The second part covers time-dependent phenomena in electromagnetism. After the
course, students should have a working knowledge of electrostatic, Gauss’s law and its solutions,
electrostatics in matter fields, and magnetostatics in matter field. Students should also be able to
solve,
both
conceptually and
analytically,
advanced
undergraduate level
problems
in
electromagnetism.
Instructor: Dr. Akm Newaz
Office: Thornton 317, Email: [email protected], [email protected]
Office hours: Tuesday 11:00 AM-1:00 PM
Meeting Time and Place: Tuesday and Thursday 2:10-3:25 PM, Hensill Hall HH113
Note on e-mail contact: please put [PHYS360:your name] at the beginning of the subject line, otherwise
the e-mail will be responded.
Textbook: Griffiths: Introduction to Electrodynamics, 4th edition
Prerequisites: PHYS 230 or 231, PHYS 330, and MATH 374 or PHYS 385 all with grades of C-or
better. If you do not satisfy this condition, you cannot take the course.
Last day of class: May17th, 2016
Midterm: March 29th, 2016 (tentative)
Final: Tuesday May 24, 1:30-4:00
Grading: A student must earn at least 50% of the total possible points in order to receive a grade
of B- or higher.
Homework 25%
Short quizzes 20%
Midterm Exam 25%
Final Exam 30%
Grading Scale (%):
A (80%)
C(40%)
A-(75%)
C-(35%)
B+(70%)
D+(30%)
B (60%)
D(25%)
B-(50%)
F(20%)
C+(45%)
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Homework: Homework will be assigned regularly. The homework should be returned on time, and no
late HW will be accepted. You are encouraged to discuss the assignments with other
students, and stop by at office hours to ask questions. The final write-up must be yours.
What
you
submit
must
be
your
own
work.
See
http://www.physics.sfsu.edu/policy/plagiarism.pdf for department policy.
Short Quizzes: We will have (graded) short quizzes at the beginning of every class. (They likely will be
during the first 5-10 minutes of class). You will be assigned reading materials before
coming to class. Quizzes will focus on important and fundamental issues from the
reading materials. The goal of these quizzes is to make sure that you have read the
reading materials before coming to the class.
Midterm and final exams: There will be one midterm and one final exam. The midterm and final
exams will be open booked. You will be allowed to use only the hard copy of the text
book (only Griffiths). No electronic copy of the text book will be allowed. Since you are
allowed to use the text book in the exam, it is expected that your solution or answer will
be mathematically rigorous and correct.
Excuses: If you have a valid excuse for missing an exam, quiz, or homework, send an email to arrange
what to do about it, beforehand if at all possible. Specify the date and day you will be (or
were) absent and the valid reasons. Ex post facto (after the fact) excuses will require
validation and may not be acceptable.
Content:
This is the first semester of a two-semester introductory course on electromagnetism. The course
will cover the following topics (mainly the material in the 1-7 chapters of Griffiths):
1. Vector analysis, differential and integral calculus, tensors.
2. Electrostatic, Coulomb’s law, electric potential, work and energy in electrostatics, and basic
properties of conductors.
3. Laplace equation, the method of images, Separation of variables, Multipole expansion
4. Electric fields in matter, Polarization, The field of Polarized objects, the electric displacement,
linear dielectrics
5. Magnetostatics, the Lorentz Force law, Biot-Savart law, the divergence and curl of B,
magnetic vector potential
6. Magnetic fields in matter, Magnetization, The field of magnetized objects, the auxiliary field H,
linear and non-linear media.
7. Electrodynamics, Electromotive force, Induction, Maxwell Equations
STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES:
Students with disabilities who need reasonable accommodations are encouraged to let the
instructor know. The Disability Programs and Resource Center is available to facilitate the
reasonable accommodations process. The DPRC, located in SSB 110, can be reached by
telephone at 338-2472 (voice/TTY) or by e-mail at [email protected]. Special accommodations will
be provided only with a formal request letter from DPRC
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