Course Notes
PHY2323
Electricity & Magnetism
- Ω -
Experimental Failure
Regrettably, I could not keep up (as those around me warned) with the task of copying summaries of every lecture I attended, complete with MathJax and diagrams, into markdown files.
While it lasted, it was a fantastic way to review and reinforce my learning. I'll leave these PHY2323 course notes up, but they will now be accessible via the archives.
I would absolutely attempt this again, but perhaps on a weekly basis.
Table of Contents
- Preamble
- Syllabus
- Important Dates & Deadlines
- Lecture Notes
- Side Effects
- References
Preamble
I took PHY2323: Electricity & Magnetism during the Winter 2019 Semester. The notes below were recorded over the duration of the course, after each lecture. Each section anchor is hyperlinked in the table of contents above. References and footnotes are present1 and can be found at the end of the document.
Syllabus
TBR. Section A is being taught by Michel Godin (mgodin@uOttawa.ca).
Important Dates & Deadlines
Date | Event |
---|---|
2019-01-25 | Assignment 1 due |
2019-02-05 | Assignment 2 quiz |
2019-02-25 | Assignment 3 due |
2019-03-12 | Midterm exam |
Lecture Notes
Winter 2019 lectures run from January 7th to April 5th; the second week of the year through to the end of week fourteen. Lecture notes are labeled according to week, then by day/lecture. My schedule for this class/year is as follows:
Tuesday 1130h - Lecture in CBY C03
Tuesday 1900h - Tutorial in Henderson 013
Friday 1300h - Lecture in CBY C03
Pre-Lecture Notes
Each week entry is filled with the material that will be covered in the coming week, to review on the weekend-of. Each event entry should contain a summary of the learning and notes.
MathJax has been included for the presentation of formulae and mathematics, tutorial here.
It can be written inline, like so: - pretty neat. The primary means of inclusion will probably be in a block, to present formulae:
Maxwell’s Equations
Expressed in MathJax/LATeX as:
$$
\begin{align}
\nabla \times \vec{E} & = -
\frac{\partial \vec{B}}{ \partial t }
&\text{1}\\[10pt]
\nabla \times \vec{H} & = \vec{J} +
\frac{ \partial \vec{D} }{ \partial t }
&\text{2}\\[10pt]
\nabla \cdot \vec{D} & = \rho_v
&\text{3}\\[10pt]
\nabla \cdot \vec{B} & = 0
&\text{4}
\end{align}
$$
Might be good to glance though the first chapter or two of the textbook in preparation for the winter semester.
Chapter One is on Electromagnetic Field Theory.
Chapter Two is on Vector Analysis.
W02 January 06-12
Tuesday 1130h - Lecture in CBY C03
First lecture of the year. Turns out Michel Godin is pronounced Michelle Godain, that’ll be good to remember for meeting the guy one-on-one.
The beginning of the lecture was an overview of what to review and expect from the course, which is essentially applied vector calculus. The course covers Chapters 2-7 of the Guru textbook, which is the primary teaching resource. Chapter 2 is essential concepts and review, this was covered in the remainder of this first lecture. Quizzes will be given during DGDs to displace assignments, due to class size.
An important distinction: Unit Vector representation in-class and in the textbook is different:
Next, Godin went over the entirety of Chapter 2. Important concepts to review:
- Dot Product
- Cross Product
- Handling Vectors
- Coordinate Systems:
- Cartesian
- Cylindrical
- Spherical
- Differential volumes, surfaces, lines.
Friday 1300h - Lecture in CBY C03
Missed this lecture for CUSEC.
W03 January 13-19
Tuesday 1130h - Lecture in CBY C03
- See prof lecture notes for Tuesday, #3.
- Chapter 3 in Guru book.
- There are only ~5 different integrals used throughout the course.
- Line, surface, volume integrals.
- Problems discussed:
- Line charge problem affecting a point.
- Uniformly charged surface affecting a point.
Process for all problems:
- Draw the situation.
- Figure out which equation to apply to the problem.
- Plug in all the variables.
- Solve (profit).
Tuesday 1900h - Tutorial in Henderson 013
Problems in Section ~2.17 were solved on the board. First, 2.24, where the total flux passing through the surface of a cylinder is calculated. Second, 2.31, where the flux through the volume of a sphere is calculated.
Friday 1300h - Lecture in CBY C03
Skipped lecture for IBM interview.
W04 January 20-26
Tuesday 1130h - Lecture in CBY C03
Lectures are getting harder to follow. Today’s topics were based on Guru 3.5. When encountering an electrostatics question, the first method used should be Gauss’s Law. The Gauss approach is, by far, the easiest way to solve a problem, but it has limitations. It can only be used when there is spherical symmetry, an infinite line/cylinder of charge, or an infinite plane of charge. In all other cases, Coulomb’s law must be used to solve problems.
Electric Potential is a Scalar Field with units V (Volts). And is equal to the gradient of V.
Tuesday 1900h - Tutorial in Henderson 013
The three steps to solve every assignment problem:
- Visualize the problem and draw a detailed diagram.
- Pick the correct formula and plug variables in.
- Solve the formula. (Profit!)
Coulomb’s Law Charge Distribution Formulae
From Lecture 2 notes on Jan 11:
Line of Charge
Surface of Charge
Volume of Charge
Friday 1300h - Lecture in CBY C03
Skipped to work on A1:
W05 January 27 - February 02
Tuesday 1130h - Lecture in CBY C03
Tuesday 1900h - Tutorial in Henderson 013
Friday 1300h - Lecture in CBY C03
W06 February 03-09
Tuesday 1130h - Lecture in CBY C03
Tuesday 1900h - Tutorial in Henderson 013
Friday 1300h - Lecture in CBY C03
W07 February 10-16
Tuesday 1130h - Lecture in CBY C03
Begins
Tuesday 1900h - Tutorial in Henderson 013
School closed due to snow.
Friday 1300h - Lecture in CBY C03
W08 February 17-23
Reading week.
Side Effects
Interesting experiments that occur as a result of knowledge gained in the classroom will be documented here, if any are completed.
References
-
Footnotes are used by placing
[^ref]
where a superscript number should be placed, and[^ref]: explanation
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