Electromagnetism

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• Potentials, gauge invariances, generation of electromagnetic waves
• The interaction of electric and magnetic fields with matter
• The propagation of electromagnetic waves in vacuum and in media
• The fundamental laws of electrodynamics (Faraday’s and Ampere-Maxwell’s laws, Maxwell’s equations)

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Develop mathematical tools for the description of physical phenomena (potential formulations, gauge invariances, wave properties)
• Derive theorems from first principles in integral and differential form

Subject Specific Practical Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Calculate electric and magnetic fields generated by charges and currents
• Describe and quantitatively evaluate the emission and propagation of electromagnetic waves in vacuum and in media
• Express electromagnetic laws in integral, differential and potential form
• Characterise the interaction between electric and magnetic fields and matter
• Compute intensities and powers associated to electromagnetic fields

Vector analysis

• Div, grad and curl, continuity equation, vector identities

Electrostatics

• Coulomb’s and Gauss’s law, electric potential, multipole expansion

Magnetostatics

• Biot-Savart Law, Ampere’s law, magnetic vector potential

Electrodynamics

• Faraday’s law, Maxwell term, Maxwell’s equations, Poynting Vector

Electromagnetic waves in vacuum

• Prediction of electromagnetic waves, energy flow

Potential formulation of electrodynamics

• Scalar and vector potentials, gauge invariance and gauge choice

Electromagnetic radiation

• Oscillating electric dipole

Electromagnetism in matter

• Introduction to D and H fields
• Electromagnetic waves in matter, laws of optics, waveguides

Resources & Reading list

Textbooks

R B Leighton & M Sands (1964). The Feynman Lectures on Physics. Addison - Wesley.

D Halliday, R Resnick and J Walker (1997). Fundamentals of Physics. Wiley.

D J Griffiths (1989). Introduction to electrodynamics. Prentice Hall.

I S Grant and W R Phillips. Electromagnetism. Wiley.

Assessment strategy

Assessment is 80% from final examination and 20% from coursework.

Weekly course work (problem sheets) will be set and assessed in the normal way, but only the best ‘n-2’ attempts will contribute to the final coursework mark. Here n is the number of course work items issued during that Semester. As an example, if you are set 10 sets of course work across a Semester, the best 8 of those will be counted.

In an instance where a student may miss submitting one or two sets of course work, those sets will not be counted. Students will, however, still be required to submit Self Certification forms on time for all excused absences, as you may ultimately end up missing 3+ sets of course work through illness, for example. The submitted Self Certification forms may be considered as evidence for potential Special Considerations requests.

Referral Method: By examination, the final mark will be calculated both with and without the coursework assessment mark carried forward, and the higher result taken.

In the event that a third (or higher) set of course work is missed, students will be required to go through the Special Considerations procedures in order to request mitigation for that set. Please note that documentary evidence will normally be required before these can be considered.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External