UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN
UCT Physics PHY2014F 2012 Electromagnetism

11 May 2012 /(1920)mdb Second Class Test: Tuesday 15th of May at 17h00 in Lecture Room A, 3rd Floor, R W James Building. Formula sheets are allowed. Chapters 1 to 7 of the prescribed text should be reviewed. Test will be 90min long, 2 questions of 30 markes each. Revise all problem sets and worked example sheets. Problem set 14 is available for download. Hand in date 18th May Esaay marks have been published essay marks. Your essays will be availabe for viewing on Friday the 11th of May from 12am in PHYLAB2. Essays must be returned to the course convenor by Monday the 14th of May by 16h00, so that they can be taken to the external examiner and included in the final aggregate mark. Worked Examples sheet 7 is available for download we07 Lecture notes on Electrodynamics ema08 are available for download Problem set 13 is available for download. Lecture notes on Magnetic Fields in Matter ema07 are available for download. There are two new proficiency tests available on Vula. You need to complete all of the proficiency tests as part of your DP requirements. Worked Examples sheet 5 and 6 are available for download we05 | we06 | Check your essay status. If action is required, deal with it immediately. Problem set 12 is available for download. Hand in date 4th May Lecture notes on Magnetic Fields ema06 are available for download. Reminder: Essays due Tuesday 24th April by 16h00. Essays can be emailed or left in Prof. Aschman's or A\Prof. Blumenthal's pigeon holes on the top floor of the physics building. Note you must complete and sign the honesty declaration which must be handed in with the essay. If you email the essay you will need to place the declaration in the pigeon hole or hand it in at the lecture on Tuesday. Worked Example sheet 4 is available for download we04 Problem set 11 is available for download. Hand in date 30th April due to public holiday on the 27th. Note: Problem set 12 will be available for downlaod on Thursday the 26th April with hand in the following Friday May 4th. Lecture notes on Electric Fields in Matter ema05 have been added online for the lectures starting Thursday 19th April 2012 ALL students, but especially those doing the two-slit interference pattern for their essay, should -- no, MUST -- read Feynman Lectures on Physics Vol3 Ch01 - 03. It should form part of the education of every civilzed person. Get the lectures (a set of three red books) from the University Library. The essay status shows the status of your essay (draft) essay. Some students have lots of work to do to get up to a reasonable standard. Worked Example sheet 3 is available for download we03 A correction to the form of the electrical potential in question 3 of Problem set 10 has been made. Problem set 10 is available for download. Hand in date 20th April Worked Examples sheet 1 and 2 are available for download we01 | we02 | Lecture notes on Special Techniques in Electrostatics ema04 have been added online for the lectures starting Friday 13th April 2012 Have a look at the following web page. mathinsight.org. The applets will help you grasp vector calculus. Lecture notes on Electrostatics ema03 have been added online for the lectures starting Tuesday 10th April 2012 Knowing the electric field both inside and outside an uniformly charged insulating charged sphere, what is the electric potential everywhere? Lectures in the electromagnetism module are given at 11h00-11h45, Lecture room C, RW James Building The reading list requires you to read G3 Ch 1 and Ch 2. A crucial point: you will need to understand the line integral of a vector field: Potential difference and line integral of electric field If you need to see the details of vector calculus (div, grad, curl etc) worked out in more detail, see the text book by Stewart: Calculus: Concepts and contexts. Here is Chapter 13: Vector Fields. The worked examples should be useful. So should the [T/F] Self-review seminars. Some people really want to see how the expression for the Laplacian in spherical polar coordinates is derived. Okay, have a look at a derivation of the Laplacian in spherical polar coordinates. . See the course mark spreadsheet with course marks (problem sets, pop quizzes and class tests) so far, on the course webpage.

CURRENT CONCEPT: Divergence of E; the Dirac delta function

HAVE YOU ASKED (YOURSELF) A GOOD QUESTION TODAY? What is the curl of the electric field due to two point charges of unequal magnitude and opposite sign?

Physics PHY2014F (Electromagnetism) is a module in the second-year half course PHY2014F (in 2012) for science students majoring in Physics or Astrophysics, Mathematics or Applied Maths, Chemistry etc. It is suitable for mathematicians, astronomers, chemists, computer scientists and geologists. The EM module consists of 36 lectures, about 12? laboratory sessions, and about 8 or 9 problem sets.

Lectures take place at 11.00 am, in Lecture Room C, RW James (Physics) Building, University Avenue, five days a week (MTWThF) in the last seven weeks of the first semester.

• Physics staff involved:
  • Professor David Aschman course convenor and lecturer of electromagnetism module. Office hours are
    • Monday 1500-1600 by prior arrangement (use email to set this up) in PHYLAB2
    • Tuesday and Wednesday 1200-1230 Room 541. Before making a special trip, you may want to phone ext 3322 to check that I am there.
    • at other times by prior arrangement (use email)
  • A/Professor Roger Fearick PHYLAB2 co-ordinator
  • Yingwen Zhang class tutor
  • A/Professor Mark Blumenthal lecturer of the electromagnetism module
• Reading list and syllabus 2012 | Textbooks
• Class representatives | Declaration on plagiarism
• .
• 2012 PHY2014F EM lecture notes: ema00 | ema01 | ema02 | ema03 | ema04 | ema05 | ema06 | ema07 | ema08 | ....
• Lecture slides from the EM section of PHY1004W in 2007: EM00 | EM01 | EM02 | EM03 | EM04 | EM05 | EM06 | EM07
• Course marks 2012 (lab marks, classtests, problem sets, pop quiz etc) .xls
• Problem sets (and maybe some hints, and, later, solutions)
• Tutorials (whiteboard tuts)
• Useful stuff on the web
  • applets and visualization of vector fields
    • mathinsight.org
    • falstad applets
  • review of some of the basic mathematics that you need
    • The Mathematics Centre
• Some good electromagnetism courses on the web
• .
• Pop Quiz 1 | Pop Quiz 2 | Pop Quiz 3 | Pop Quiz 4 | solution
• Some crucial points:
  • Potential difference and line integral of electric field
  • ..
• PHY2014F Electromagnetism revision sheet contains a set of problems that EVERY student coming into PHY2014F should attempt. PHY2014F is a difficult course, and good preparation is crucial. You MUST understand vectors well.
• Worked examples | Work sheets for practice. | Good questions to ask yourself
• Physics terms for you to explain | Revision self-test seminars
• .
• Some useful programs
• Maxwell bio-sketch | | Griffiths' view of physics | Time-varying electromagnetic fields
• .
• Glossary of terms and words used in a scientific context.
• Terms used in examinations.
• Past class tests and exams (not complete)
• ...
• Semi-popular physics journals: Physics Today | Physics World | Cern Courier | SLAC Beamline | Scientific American | Physical Review Focus | What is new? | Computing in Science and Engineering | Physics News Update | Reviews of Modern Physics | Nature | New Scientist | American Scientist | Science | American Journal of Physics | Quantum Diaries |