Syllabus Information

5.3. Syllabus

Physics II course provides in a first part the basic concepts and laws related to electromagnetic fields and ends with Maxwell's equations in integral form. The wave concepts are also shown from a general point of view, while it is performed a more detailed analysis of the peculiarities of wave phenomena of interest in engineering: waves in solids and fluids (acoustics), electromagnetic waves and optics.

1. Wave motion: Mathematical description. Transverse waves in a stretched string. Mechanical energy of a harmonic wave. Waves in two and three dimensions.

2. Acoustics: Longitudinal waves in a solid. Longitudinal waves in a gas. Doppler effect.

3. Superposition of waves: Standing waves. Interference and diffraction

4. Electrostatic field and potential: Coulomb's Law: field and potential. Charge distributions. Energy stored in a charge distribution.

5. Gauss' law: Flux of the electrostatic field: Gauss' law. Applications: planar, cylindrical and spherical symmetries.

6. Electrostatic fields in the presence of conductors: electrostatic equilibrium conditions. Potential and capacity coefficients. Capacitor.

7. Electrostatic field in the presence of dielectrics: Electric dipole. Polarization vector. Gauss' law. Displacement vector. Dielectric properties of matter.

8. Electric current: Current density. Continuity equation. Microscopic Ohm's law. Resistance.

9. Magnetic induction field, B: Lorentz force. Hall effect. Biot-Savart's law. Current distributions.

10. Ampère's law in vacuum: Circulation of the magnetic field, B. Ampère's law. Applications: calculation of B in highly symmetric situations.

11. Magnetostatic field in the presence of matter: Magnetic dipole. Magnetization. Ampère's law. H field. Magnetic properties of matter.

12. Electromagnetic induction: Faraday's law. Self-inductance and mutual inductance coefficients.

13. Maxwell's equations: Ampère-Maxwell's law. Displacement current. Maxwell's equations in integral form. Electromagnetic waves.