Physics 842 – Fall 2011

Classical Electrodynamics II

Tuesday, Thursday 1:00 – 2:40 pm, BPS 1308

 

Click here for tentative Quiz Schedule

 

Landau & Lifshitz notation vs. PHY842 notation

Instructor:         Norman Birge, BPS 4224, 884-5653, birge@pa.msu.edu

                        Office Hours:  Tuesday, 3:00 – 5:00pm and by appointment

 

Textbook:         Landau & Lifshitz, Electrodynamics of Continuous Media, 2nd Edition (Volume 8 of Landau & Lifshitz Course of Theoretical Physics)

                        (Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford, 2004)

 

Other books:    J.D. Jackson, Classical Electrodynamics, 3rd Edition (Wiley, New York, 1999)

                        H.C. Ohanian, Classical Electrodynamics, 2nd Edition (Infinity Science Press, Hingham, MA, 2007)

 

Grading:           weekly quizzes              50%

                        student-given mini-lecture          10%

                        final exam                                 40%

 

                        Due to budget cuts, there is no grader for this course.  Problem sets will be assigned, but students will be responsible for making sure that their solutions are correct.  Students are strongly encouraged to consult with each other on the homework, but only after they have worked out the problems independently.  Please ask questions about the homework in class, so we can discuss them.

                       

                        20-minute quizzes will be given at the beginning of Thursday’s class each week, based on the homework due the previous Tuesday and on the worked-out problems in Landau & Lifshitz.

 

                        Each student will give one 20-minute mini-lecture during the course of the semester.  A sign-up sheet will be passed around at the first lecture.  The material to be covered will be assigned by the instructor the previous week.

 

Schedule:          There will be no class on the following days: September 6, 8, 22, 27, October 25, and possibly one or two other dates.  To make up the lost time, class will go until 2:40pm rather than 2:20pm the rest of the semester.  We will take a short break in the middle of each class.

 

Final exam:       Tuesday, December 13, 12:45-2:45 pm, in a location to be announced later.

 

Content:           The course will cover some, but not all, of the material in Landau & Lifshitz chapters 1-7, plus chapters 9 and 10.