Overview

Syllabus

Problem Sets

Grades

This week:   1 – 5 May

Final Examination:  



Monday 5 May, 1:00 – 4:00 pm, Doherty Hall 1212

Overview and purpose of the course

This course explores electromagnetism and light.  On everyday scales down to atomic and molecular scales, the eletromagnetic force is responsible for most of the properties that we observe in materials and in living organisms.
     We shall begin our study of this force by exploring electric and magnetic phenomena separately and in simple situations where charges are either not moving at all or are only moving steadily.  Once we have explored this corner of the natural world, we shall learn that these two phenomena are related and that they are really just two manifestations of a single electromagnetic force.
     Light is also produced by electromagnetism—light arises as oscillations in the electric and magnetic fields. Light is an important example of a wave phenomenon; waves are important in physics since they occur in many different parts of the natural world. The course will conclude with a discussion of optics.
     From time to time we shall illustrate how electromagnetism and light can be used in specific medical applications.

Additional resources

Help Sessions:  
6:50–8:50 pm on Wednesday evenings in Wean 7423 and on Thursday evenings in Wean 8325

The teaching assitants will be available to help you with any questions about the problem sets and the material in the course.