Week I

28 Aug–1 Sept

Electrostatics; Coulomb’s law; Coulomb’s constant; the charge of an electron; the electric field; the principle of superposition; electric field diagrams; distributions of charges; spherically symmetric distributions; a long, thin line of charge

Week II

5–8 September

The electric potential; volts; electron-volts (a unit of energy); how to calculate the electric potential; the potential of a point charge

Week III

11–18 September

Electric dipoles; the electric dipole moment; the electric field due to a dipole, far from the dipole; dipoles in electric fields; dipoles like to align with electric fields; the potential energy of of dipole; capacitors and capacitance; C=Q/V

Week IV

18–22 September

Farads; a parallel plate capacitor; the energy in a capacitor; dielectrics; effect of a dielectric on a capacitor; the dielectric constant, K; symmetries in nature; symmetries in distributions of charge; examples: rotations, translations, mirror reflections; how to use symmetries to determine the direction of an electric field at a point; how to use symmetries to relate the electric field at different points; example: a line of charge

Week V

25–29 September

The electric flux, Φ; Gauss’s law; examples of Gauss’s law; how to choose a Gaussian surface based on the symmetry; electric fields vanish inside conductors and are perpendicular to the surface in electrostatics; direct currents; the drift velocity; the conductivity, σ; the resistivity, ρ; the resistance; ohms (Ω); Ohm’s law, V=IR

Week VI

2–6 October

The electromotive force; power dissipated in a resistor, P=IV=I²R; Kirchhoff’s rules; ΔV=0 around a closed loop; the current entering a node must equal the current leaving the node; resistors in parallel and in series; RC circuits; discharging a capacitor; charging a capacitor with a battery; the time constant of an RC circuit, t₀=RC

Week VII

9–13 October

The anatomy of a nerve cell; myelinated and unmyelinated axons; Schwann cells; nodes of Ranvier; the resistance and capacitance of an axon membrane; the leakage resistance; the resting potential; the Nernst equation; the sodium-potassium pump; the response of an axon to a weak stimulus; the action potential

Week VIII

16–19 October

Magnetic fields; the Lorentz force law; teslas; the magnetic force on a streight wire; the magnetic field on a curved wire; magnetic dipoles; the magnetic dipole moment, μ = IA; calculating the torque on a current loop; the energy of a magnetic dipole in a magnetic field

Week IX

23–27 October

Atomic dipoles; spin; magnets; a velocity selectors; mass spectrometers; the Biot-Savart law; the Biot-Savart constant; the magnetic field for an infinite straight wire; the magnetic field for a current loop

Week X

30 Oct–3 Nov

Ampère’s law; the magnetic field of an infinite wire revisited; a solenoid; the magnetic field inside a solenoid; time-dependent magnetic fields

Week XI

6–10 November

The magnetic flux, Φ; Faraday’s law; Lenz’s law; generators; alternating currents; properties of a sinusoid; angular frequency, amplitude; phase shift; period; freqency; hertz (Hz); the effective or root mean square current; transformers; mutual inductance, M

Week XII

13–17 November

Self-inductance, L; the inductance of a solenoid; the energy in an inductor; magnetic materials; the magnetic constant; diamagentic, paramagnetic, and ferromagnetic materials; nuclear magnetic resonance; the nuclear magneton; relation between the spin and dipole moment of a proton; torque on a proton in a magnetic field; precession

Week XIII

20–21 November

How to measure the precession frequency; resonance; chemical shift

Week XIV

27 Nov–1 December

Maxwell’s equations; general properties and examples of waves; travelling waves; sinusoids again; amplitude; phase shifts; wavelength; wave number; wave speed; period; angular frequency; frequency; combining waves; standing waves; interference between waves; constructive and destructive interference; beats; average and differences of two frequencies; the beat frequency; how waves behave at boundaries; boundary conditions; fixed boundary conditions; free boundary conditions; finding the allowed wave numbers and wavelengths for standing waves with boundaries; fundamentals and harmonics;

Week XV

4–8 December

Energy and momentum in waves; the energy density in an electromagnetic field; transverse waves; polarisation; polarisers; circular polarisation; wave properties of light; the index of refraction, n; the reflectance, R; the transmittance, T; spherical waves and plane waves; reflection of light; specular reflection; refraction of light; Snell’s law; total internal reflection