Electromagnetic Theory 1

Howard University
WASHINGTON DC 20059

DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY -- (202) 806-6245 (main office), -5830 (fax)

Electromagnetic Theory I
PHYS-214 (19014): MW: 11:10 -12:30, in TKH #207
[Topics][Daily Schedule][Minimal Requirements][Assignments][Welcome]

Instructor: Tristan Hübsch (Office hours: TBA): TKH 213, 806-6267 thubsch@mac.com, thubsch@mac.com
Textbook (required): J.D. Jackson, Classical Electrodynamics (3rd ed): (optional): L.D. Landau & E.M Lifshitz, The Classical Theory of Fields; (optional): W. Greiner & D.A. Bromley, Classical Electrodynamics; (optional): D.J. Griffiths, Introduction to Electrodynamics

Grading recipe (no make-ups are given, except in cases of proven medical emergency):

Component	Time	Remark	% of Grade
Homework	See in daily schedule	Late HW = 0 credit !!!	20%
Classwork/Quizzes	2-3/week	current material	20%
Exams (two midterms)	See in daily schedule	not comprehensive	(each) 20%
Now drop the one worst component (for each student individually).
Final exam	Last week of semester	comprehensive	40%

—See also minimum requirements for passing the course.—

The goal of this course is to provide a comprehensive and detailed treatment of electrostatic and magnetostatic configurations, Maxwell’s equations (and all the physics laws they encompass), and the response of dielectric and magnetic media to electromagnetic fields. Prerequisites to this course include electricity and magnetism at an advanced undergraduate level, and the working knowledge of vector calculus and orthogonal functions, such as those of the Bessel and Legendre and trigonometric type.

“Success = 1% inspiration + 99% perspiration”--T.A. Edison
But, learning is still 100% learning!

Topical schedule:

§1: Introduction to Electrostatics
§2: Boundary-Value Problems in Electrostatics I
§3: Boundary-Value Problems in Electrostatics II
1st Midterm exam--§1–3: 02/10 (open text, in-class) + take-home due 02/17
§4: Multipoles, Electrostatics of Macroscopic Media, Dielectrics
§5: Magnetistatics, Faraday’s Law, Quasi-Static Fields
2nd Midterm exam--§4–5: 03/29 (open text, in-class) + take-home due 04/05
§6: Maxwell Equations, Macroscopic Electromagnetism, Conservation Laws
Final exam--comprehensive: (almost) everything, given 04/14, due 04/21.

Day-to-day schedule: Students are required to read ahead

01/11	Introduction and survey; §I
01/13	Coulomb’s law, Gauss’s law, and the scalar potential; §1.1–5
01/18	Observed holiday: Martin Luther King’s birthday
01/20	Surface charges, Poisson and Laplace equations, Green’s theorem; §1.6–10 [HW1 due]
01/25	Potential energy and energy density, variational and relaxation methods; §1.11–13
01/27	Method of images; §2.1–5 [HW2 due]
02/01	Green function and orthogonal function expansion, §2.6–8
02/03	Separation of variables and other methods, § 2.9–12 + more [HW3 due]
02/08	*Review*
02/10	1st Midterm Exam: Chapters I, 1+2; 90-minute in-class, open-book + take-home due 02/17
02/15	Observed Holiday: President’s day
02/17	Laplace equation in cylindrical and spherical coordinates, §3.7–8, §3.1–3
02/22	Associate Legendre functions and spherical harmonics, §3.4–6 [HW4 due]
02/24	Green functions, §3.9–13
03/01	Multipole expansion, energy of a charge distribution, dielectrics, §4.1–4[HW5 due]
03/03	Polarizability and susceptibility in dielectric media, §4.5–7
03/08	Biot-Savart law, Ampère’s law, the vector potential, §5.1–5 [HW6 due]
03/10	Localized currents, Magnetic moment, force, torque and energy of currents, §5.6–9
	Spring recess: March 13th, close of classes, through March 22nd, 8:00 AM
03/22	Magnetized objects, §5.10–14 [HW7 due]
03/24	Review
03/29	2nd Midterm Exam: Chapters 3–5.14; 1-hour in-class, open-book + take-home due 04/05
03/31	Faraday’s law, energy in the magnetic field, inductance, §5.15–18
04/05	Maxwell’s displacement current, potentials, gauge transformations, §6.1–4 [HW8 due]
04/07	Retarded solutions, Poynting’s theorem, §6.5–9
04/12	Retarded solutions, Heaviside-Feynman expressions, §6.5–9 [HW9 due]
04/14	Poynting’s theorem, §6.7–9
	*Final Exam handed out, due 04/21*
04/19	Spacetime transformation properties of the electromagnetic field, §6.10–13 [HW10 due]
04/21	Review

Minimum requirements

To pass the course with a grade B or better, a graduate Student must by the time of the final exam be able to demonstrate the ability to:

apply Coulomb’s, Gauss’s, Ampère’s, Biot-Savart’s and Faraday’s laws,
use the methods of images and conformal mapping,
use the Laplace, Poisson and Helmholtz differential equations and corresponding Green functions,
use scalar and vector potentials for the electromagnetic field

to sove concrete problems involving free charge- and current-densities, physical (imperfect) conducting media, and electromagnetic fields.

A graduate student who cannot demonstrate the above listed skills by the time of the final exam automatically forfeits a grade of B or better -- regardless of the total number of points acquired in homework, quizzes and exams.

Homework assignments (50 problems)

Due 01/20: TBA
Due 01/27: TBA
Due 02/03: TBA
Due 02/22: TBA
Due 03/01: TBA
Due 03/08: TBA
Due 03/22: TBA
Due 04/05: TBA
Due 04/12: TBA
Due 04/19: TBA

All homework assignments are due by 5:00 PM of the day indicated and should be either given to the instructor in hand, left in the instructor’s mailbox in TKH#105, or slid under the instructor’s office door, TKH#213. Late homework will not be accepted, except in cases of proven (medical) emergency.

Collaboration policy

Collaboration -- but not blind copying -- on the homework assignments is strongly encouraged; students should use this to learn from each other. All exams and quizzes are open text and open class-notes (including notebooks and class handouts), but no collaboration is allowed; by signing the exams and quizzes, the student implicitly agrees to abide by this policy. Violation of this policy is covered under University regulations on academic dishonesty and cheating.

Presentation and organization

While a neat presentation of home,- quiz- and exam-work is not required for full credit, it certainly makes it easier to assess the quality of the work and give the proper credit due. In all cases, include a simple sketch if it might help conveying the approach or the calculations. Where necessary, include all units and symbols such as the measure of an integral, arrow on a vector, vertical bars for the absolute value of a quantity, for the magnitude of a vector or for the determinant of a matrix, etc.

Homework: Submitted answer sheets should be stapled (preferably in the top-left corner). The Student’s full name (and ID number) should be indicated on the first (cover) page. Solutions should be labeled and ordered consecutively by the problem numbers. Include all calculation/work and give full reference to any result quoted from any source other than the text, and page/equation number for results quoted from the text. Homework assignments will be graded by a grader with whom unsatisfactory credit should be disputed prior to appealing to the instructor; the instructor may override the grader’s assessment.
Quizzes: The Student’s full name (and ID number) should be indicated on the first (cover) page, unless otherwise requested at the time of the quiz. Include all calculation/work and give the page/equation number for results quoted from the text. Speed and efficiency is important, but the presentation must be legible. If submitted under a pseudonym, the quizzes will be pre-graded by a classmate; the final grade will be given by the instructor. The quizzes will be returned to the individual students.
Mid-term exams: All exam questions are given on a question sheet and include the detailed point distribution and the place to write in the Student’s full name and ID number. This question sheet is to be stapled on the top of the answer sheets, in the top-left corner. It will be used to indicate the acquired points, part by part and in total, the average score and the standard deviation. A second copy of the question sheet is to be used for the take-home part in the same manner. The formula by which the points will be summed between the to parts will be given on the question sheet. The mid-term exams will be returned to the individual students.
Final exam: All exam questions are given on a question sheet and include the detailed point distribution and the place to write in the Student’s full name and ID number. This question sheet is to be stapled on the top of the answer sheets, in the top-left corner. It will be used to indicate the acquired points, part by part and in total, the average score and the standard deviation. The final exams are stored by the instructor, but are available to the individual student for review after the exam.

ADA disclaimer

Howard University is committed to providing an educational environment that is accessible to all students. In accordance with this policy, students in need of accommodations due to a disability should contact the Assistant Dean for Student Affairs and Records, Denise L. Spriggs (202) 806-8006), for verification and determination of reasonable accommodations as soon as possible after admission to the Law School, or at the beginning of each semester.

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