PHY2103 ELECTROMAGNETISM

This course builds on the Electricity and Magnetism course offered in year one. It covers electrostatics, stationary electric fields in conducting media, magneto-static field laws, Maxwell’s equations and their applications. This course covers electrostatics, Gauss' law, Poisson's equation, dielectric materials, electrostatic energy, boundary-value problems; magnetostatics, law of Biot and Savart, Ampere's law, magnetic forces and materials, magnetic energy; electromagnetic induction; Faraday's law; Maxwell's equations, Poynting's theorem, propagation of plane electromagnetic waves in non-conducting medi

Course Objectives
At the end of this course, students should be able to

• Solve problems in Electrostatics
• Explain electric conduction in metals, state and apply the equation of continuity and calculate resistance of given pair of conductors
• Describe expressions for the capacitances of cylindrical and spherical capacitors and densities due to simple current distributions
• Solve problems involving static magnetic fields and apply the laws of electromagnetic induction to problems involving eddy currents, self and mutual inductance and derive Neumann’s formula
• State Maxwell’s equations of electromagnetism and derive the wave equations for E and H in dielectrics and conducting media
• Derive the relation between time averaged Poynting’s vector and the energy density of the electromagnetic field
• Solve problems involving reflection and refraction of plane waves
• Perform experiments to link theory and practical aspect

Expected Learning Outcomes
On completion, successful students will be able to 

• Formulate potential problems within electrostatics, magnetostatics and stationary current distributions in linear, isotropic media, and also solve such problems in simple geometries using separation of variables  
• Define and derive expressions for the energy both for the electrostatic and magnetostatic fields, and derive Poyntings theorem from Maxwells equations and interpret the terms in the theorem physically 
• Describe and make calculations of plane electromagnetic waves in homogeneous media, including reflexion of such waves in plane boundaries between homogeneous media