Schedule: T TH 10:50am-12:05pm
Location: SETB 1.350
Instructor: Richard Price
E-mail:
rprice@phys.utb.edu
Office: SETB 1.354
Phone: (956) 574-6648
Office Hours 9:00am-10:50am and 1:00pm-2pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays
Text: "Classical Electrodyamics"
by J. D. Jackson, 3rd edition
Electrodynamics itself is important in most branches of physics, but that is only one of the justifications of this course. The other justifications come from the fact that classical electrodynamics is a consistent and complete theory. Working with this theory provides experience with the kind of mathematical analysis that is useful in much of physics. By practicing this mathematics within the context of electrodynamics we see how intuition and formal analysis can interact in an efficient solution of a problem.
Another justification is that the relative simplicity of classical electrodynamics helps us lay the foundation for understanding more difficult field theories, like general relativity.
A third justification is that electromagnetic radiation is very important in its own right, and in many areas of physics and engineering. It also teaches the foundations of radiation that are necessary to understand gravitational waves.
Pedagogical Approach
There will be a great emphasis on problem solving! You will be expected to be facile in solving Jackson's problems. The importance of problem solving is so great that I will, at times, carry out lengthy and difficult solutions in class.
You will be wasting your time if you come to class without having read the necessary material. I will help encourage you not to waste your time by giving very brief quizzes in class. Each class will start with questions from students. After the questions --or immediately, if there are no questions-- there will be a very short quiz. If you come to class late you may miss this quiz. The quiz on any day will be on the reading for that day, or on material recently covered.
Email and web communication
I encourage you to ask questions outside of class, as well as in class. I will arrange office hours, but it is often very effective to ask and answer questions using email. I will try to answer email questions immediately; if I feel that we need to talk about your question in person, we can use email to arrange a meeting.
Whether or not you have questions you will be expected to check your email regularly for messages about the course. Email can be used to (for example) give advice about solving homework problems, correcting mistakes in the problems assigned, adjusting reading assignments, and so forth. All homework assignments and solutions, handouts, reading assignments, etc will be placed on this web site. Paper versions will also be handed out in class initially. Later we may discontinue paper versions.
Curriculum Coverage
The choice of topics will be based on the purposes of the course, as described above: applied mathematics, a model for field theory, radiation. The course will closely follow sections of the Jackson textbook. Our coverage of the chapters will not be at all uniform. We will not cover every section of the chapters, and we will not give equal emphasis to the sections that we do cover. For example, in Chap. 4, consistent with the purposes of the course we will pay much more attention to multipole expansions than to properties of dielectrics. The initial plan for coverage is the following:
Bases for Grade
There will be two midterm exams and one final in the course. Your final grade will be based on your work with the following weighting: Homework: 30% each midterm exam 17%% Final exam 26% quizzes 10%.
Late homework will lose 10% per day, and will not be accepted more than 4 days after it is due.
Since we will not be going over everything in class, you will want to know what to know for the exams. In principle, you are responsible for all the assigned reading, but in reality all the reading is not equally important. In practice, the guide to what will be on the exams is what is on the homework. The homework is definitely and unquestionably the most important part of this course. You cannot learn this material passively. If you do not do the homework, you will not do well in the course; if you carefully do the homework you will probably do very well.