Physics 842 – Fall 2012

Classical Electrodynamics II

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

Student mini-lectures and homework discussion: Wednesday 10:10 - 11:20, BPS 1400

 

Tentative quiz schedule

 

Landau & Lifshitz 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%

 

                        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.  Given the large number of students enrolled in the course this semester, we will arrange for some extra class sessions to give everybody time for their lecture.  I will assign the material to be covered for each mini-lecture.

 

Schedule:        There will be no class on the following days: September 4, 6, 11, & 13, and October 9 & 11.  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:      Thursday, December 13, 12:45-2:45 pm, in room 136 Chemistry. The alternative exam time is Tuesday, December 11, 3:00 - 5:00pm, in room BPS 1308.

 

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