PHYS201 (Electromagnetism I)

This repository includes the source code for my PHYS201 (Electromagnetism I) lectures delivered at the University of Liverpool from 2014/15 to date. PHYS201 is a 15-credit, second-year undergraduate module attended by about 150 students from several courses, including Physics, Mathematical Physics, Astronomy, Geology, Ocean Sciences and Medical Physics. The 12 2-hr lectures represent 50% of scheduled contact time, with the rest devoted to workshops.

The PDF output of the TeX source of this repository can be found here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/fa10c6uf99tjxv0/PHYS201_202122.pdf?dl=0 (969 pages, 55 MB)

Author

Prof. Costas Andreopoulos, FHEA < constantinos.andreopoulos \at cern.ch >

 University of Liverpool          |  U.K. Research & Innovation (UKRI)
 Faculty of Science & Engineering |  Science & Technology Facilities Council (STFC)
 School of Physical Sciences      |  Rutherford Appleton Laboratory 
 Department of Physics            |  Particle Physics Department
 Oliver Lodge Lab 316             |  Harwell Oxford Campus, R1 2.89
 Liverpool L69 7ZE, UK            |  Oxfordshire OX11 0QX, UK          
 tel: +44-(0)1517-943201          |  tel: +44-(0)1235-445091 

Aims of the course

• To introduce the fundamental concepts and principles of electrostatics, magnetostatics, electromagnetism and Maxwell's equations, and electromagnetic waves.
• To introduce differential vector analysis in the context of electromagnetism.
• To introduce circuit principles and analysis (EMF, Ohm's law, Kirchhoff's rules, RC and RLC circuits)
• To introduce the formulation of Maxwell's equations in the presence of dielectric and magnetic materials.
• To develop the ability of students to apply Maxwell's equations to simple problems involving dielectric and magnetic materials.
• To develop the concepts of field theories in Physics using electromagnetism as an example.
• To introduce light as an electromagnetic wave.

Syllabus

• Electric charge, Coulomb’s law, Charge density
• Electric field, Principle of Superposition
• Electric flux, Gauss’ law (integral form)
• Mutual potential energy of point charges, electric potential
• Calculating the field from the potential (gradient)
• Circulation, charges on conductors
• Gauss’ law in differential form (divergence)
• Circulation law in differential form (curl)
• Poisson’s and Laplace’s laws and solutions
• Electric dipole
• Electrostatics and conductors, method of images
• Gauss’ and Stokes’ theorems
• EMF, potential difference, electric current, current density
• Resistance, Ohm’s law
• Circuits, Kirkhhoff’s rules
• Capacitance, calculation of capacitance for simple cases, RC circuits
• Dielectrics, polarization, electric displacement field
• Capacitance in the presence of dielectrics, force on a dielectric
• Magnetism, magnetic field, Biot-Savart law
• Lorentz force, force between currents
• Charged particle motion in magnetic field, velocity filter
• Magnetic dipole field, Ampere’s law in integral and differential forms
• Maxwell’s equations in vacuum for steady conditions
• Vector potential
• Magnetic materials, magnetization, magnetic field strength
• Maxwell’s equations in the presence of materials for steady conditions
• Motion of conductors inside magnetic fields, Faraday’s and Lenz’s laws
• Time-varying fields, Maxwell’s equations for the most general case
• Derivation of electromagnetic waves from Maxwell’s equations, speed of light
• LCR circuits