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PHY 415: Electromagnetic Theory I
Prof. S. Teitel: stte@pas.rochester.edu ---- Fall 2020

 Wednesday, December 9, 2020

The recording of today's Discussion Session has been uploaded and is available for viewing. The link is on the calendar page.

Your review for the Final Project is due today, uploaded to Blackboard, by 5pm. I will be sending the reviews to the groups this evening. Your group has until 5pm Wednesday, December 16, to email me back your final paper and response to the reviews.

The University's standardized course evaluation form is now available. Please take a few moments to fill out this form. Your feedback will be greatly appreciated. To access this form, log into learn.rochester.edu, click on the "Student Access" tab at the top of the page, then click the link to "Complete Course Evaluations" found at the bottom of the left side menu. The survey will close on December 15.

Separate from the University's standardized course evaluation form, I will also be emailing you in a few days a request to fill out a separate course evaluation using Google Forms. These will be questions specifically geared to how this class was taught this semester. Your replies will be anonymous. They will help me to think about how to structure my spring course PHY 418, Statistical Mechanics, that many of you will presumably be taking. So your feedback is important and will be appreciated.

I hope you have enjoyed taking E&M and found the material interesting. Online teaching has had its challenges, but it has also been interesting. Hopefully we will get to meet in person not too far in the future! Enjoy the winter break!

 Wednesday, December 2, 2020

The recording of today's Discussion Session has been uploaded and is available for viewing. The solution to Discussion Question 6.4 is also posted. The links are on the calendar page. You do not need to reply to Discussion Quesion 6.5 in the notes. There will be no Discussion Question response due next week.

I have extended the deadline for your Final Project final manuscript by one day. It is now due by 5pm on Wednesday, December 16, emailed to me at: stte@pas.rochester.edu

 Tuesday, December 1, 2020

I hope you are all well under way on your Final Project. The first draft of your paper is due next week Monday, December 7, at 9am. One person from each group should be delegated to email me your draft. These must be turned in on time so that I can send them out to your classmates for review promptly by noon the same day. Reviews are due back by 5pm on Wednesday, December 9. Reviews should be uploaded to Blackboard -- look for the "Final Project" link in the left side navigation panel of the Blackboard course homepage.

Note, your Final Project paper should include a short abstract as well as introduction, body outlining the problem and giving your results, and conclusions.

Problem Set 10 is due this Thursday, December 3, by 5pm.

You should have finished with unit 6 and be moving on to unit 7.

 Wednesday, November 25, 2020

The recording of today's Discussion Session has been uploaded and is available for viewing. The solution to Discussion Question 6.3 is also posted. The links are on the calendar page.

With the posted solution to Problem Set 9 I have also included some notes showing how to generalize the second problem to treat the case of total internal reflection more rigorously than was discussed in Notes 5-5. These new notes are also now posted as Notes 5-5-supp on the Unit 5 page and on the Notes page.

During today's Discussion Session, a question was raised about what is now Eq. (6.1.56) in the notes. In the notes we treated the special case where the observer was in the xy plane at z=0. But to compute the E field, we need to take the gradient of the scalar potential φ, and so to get the z-component Ez we need the derivative of φ in the z-direction. To do that we need to extend our solution to the case where the observer is at any height z. I have therefore added to the Notes 6-1 some additional discussion how to go from our particular solution to the general solution. The resulting E given in Eq. (6.1.56) is then for the case of an observer at a general r=(x,y,z).

You should be finishing to read the notes for Unit 6 over the break. Discussion Question 6.4 is due Tuesday, December 1, at 5pm. Recall, your submissions to the Disucssion Questions count for the 10% participation part of your class grade. If you do not submit a response, it lowers your participation grade. The last Problem Set 10 is due Thursday, December 3, at 5pm.

I hope you have all started working on your final project. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me by Slack, email, or the course Discussion Boards.

Have a great Thanksgiving Holiday!

 Wednesday, November 18, 2020

The recording of today's Discussion Session has been uploaded and is available for viewing. The solution to Discussion Question 5.3 is also posted. The links are on the calendar page.

The Midterm Exam has been graded and you may see your graded exam on Blackboard. The average was 82.3 with a standard deviation of 13.1. The exam solutions and a histogram of class grades are available on the Midterm Exam page on Blackboard. I graded the exams, so if you have any questions please contact me directly.

Problem Set 9 is due tomorrow, Thursday, December 19, at 5pm. You should be reading unit 6 and be finished with that when classes resume after Thanksgiving break.

 Thursday, November 12, 2020

The solutions to the Midterm Exam have been posted. You may find them on the Midterm Exam page on Blackboard. I hope to have your exams graded within the week.

Your reply to Discussion Question 5.3, dealing with behavior in conductors, is due next week Tuesday, November 17, by 5pm. Problem Set 9 is due next week Thursday, November 19, by 5pm. Although both next week's Discussion Question and Problem Set are on the material of unit 5, you should start your reading of the notes for unit 6. By our Wednesday Discussion Session, you should be almost finished with the Notes 6-1.

Final Project topics have been assigned. You should have received an email from me with the assignment for your group.

 Monday, November 9, 2020

The recording of today's Discussion Session has been uploaded and is available for viewing. The link is on the calendar page.

The Midterm Exam will take place this Wednesday at 10:25am. You will have two hours to work on the exam and an additional 1/2 hour to scan and upload your work. You will be able to download the exam from Blackboard by going to the Midterm Exam link that is in the side navigation panel. You will upload your work via the upload link on this same page. You will also find on this page a sheet of formulae that you are free to download and use as you work on the exam. Other notes, books, electronic or human resources are not permitted. If you anticipate having any trouble accessing Blackboard, please email me and I will email you a copy of the exam. If you have any trouble uploading your work to Blackboard, then directly email me your work.

During the time of the exam I will host a Zoom session on the regular class Zoom link. I will also monitor our class Slack channel. This Zoom session and Slack are for you to use in case you have any questions you need to ask concerning questions on the exam. The exam is not being Zoom proctored, so it is not necessary to connect if you do not wish to. But if you connect on Zoom and monitor Slack, you will see any questions that get asked, and also see my responses. If you post a question on Slack, please use the "electromagnetism" channel; only send a direct meesage to me if the matter is private.

The Midterm will cover all material through the end of Notes 5-2 and consist of three problems. Please be sure to put a box around your final answers to each question and cross out anything you do not wish me to look at. Be sure to include explanations of your steps to increase your chances of getting partial credit if you make a mistake.

Problem Set 10, concerning the topics of unit 6, is now posted and due Thursday December 3. This set is due after classes resume following Thanksgiving break, so you have a lot of time to work on it. It is worth 40 points.

All notes for unit 7 are now posted. Videos will be posted soon. There will be no problem set for unit 7. Nevertheless you should give this unit your attention as it contains very interesting material!

Group assignments for the Final Project will be announced this week on Thursday. You should not reveal to your classmates (other than your group mates) which topic you are working on, since I wish the papers you write to be reviewed double blind -- i.e. the reviewer does not know who the authors are, and the authors do not know who the reviewers are.

 Thursday, November 5, 2020

The recording from yesterday's Discussion Session is now uploaded. The link is on the calendar page.

 Monday, November 2, 2020

To help you study for the midterm exam, please note that exams from previous years of this course can be found by going to those course websites, available from here.

Also, I will be holding an additional Discussion Session next week on Monday, November 9, at 10:25am. I will not have anything prepared, but I will be able to answer any questions you may have on the material covered by the Midterm Exam. If there is something in particular that you know you would like to see discussed, just email me in advance so I can be better prepared.

On the course homepage on Blackboard, you will see a new link in the left hand navigation bar called "Midterm Exam". If you click on that you will be go to a page where you can download the math formulae sheets that you may use on the exam. These are copies of the inside covers of Griffiths, only I have modified the EM specific equations to use CGS units. This will also be the page where you will download the exam next week Wednesday, and upload your finished work.

 Sunday, November 1, 2020

Since the University has canceled classes for Tuesday, November 2, there will be no Discussion Question due that day. For the Discussion Session on Wednesday, feel free to ask questions about anythng in the course so far! If you want me to talk about a particular topic, it will help me prepare if you can email me in advance what the topic is.

The Midterm Exam is next week Wednesday, November 11, 10:25am - 12:25pm, plus an extra 1/2 hour to scan and upload your work. You work is due uploaded to Blackboard by 12:55pm. If you have a problem with Blackboard, then email me your work. The Midterm will cover all material up through Notes 5-2.

The topics and schedule for the Final Project are now posted in Unit 8. Please take a look and start thinking about what topic you might like to work on. I will notify you of your group assignment this week on Thurdsay.

 Wednesday, October 28, 2020

The recording of today's Discussion Session has been uploaded and is available for viewing. The link is on the calendar page.

Notes for unit 6 are now uploaded.

The Midterm Exam will be Wednesday, November 11, 10:25am - 12:25pm, with an additional 1/2 hour to scan your work and upload it. The exam will be distributed via Blackboard, and you will upload your solutions via Blackboard. If you have had any problems with internet connectivity, and you are concerned whether you will be able to access Blackboard at that time, please let me know in advance and I can email you the exam and you can return it by email to me. The exam will have three problems. I will let you know next week how far the exam will cover (certainly through unit 4, but I'm not sure yet how far into unit 5). I will provide you with the equations to be found on the inside covers of the text by Griffiths. Otherwise the exam is closed book, closed notes, no calculators or other electronic or online resources allowed.

I am starting to plan for the Final Project. If you have not already, please email me to let me know (i) if you know TeX or some variant, and (ii) if there are classmates you would like to work with in your group. The class will be divided into 8 groups with 4 students per group. I will consider your requests for groupmates, but I do not promise to honor all requests. I hope to notify you of your group, and the avalable topics for the project, sometime next week. When you receive your group assignment, you should dicuss with your groupmates and then let me know which topic you would like to work on. You might want to give an ordered list of first, second, third choice. No more than two groups can choose the same topic, and those who reply earlier will have a better chance to get their first choice. I will assign your group your topic on Thursday after the Midterm Exam. The first draft of your paper on your topic will be due Monday, December 7, at noon.

There will be two more Problem Sets for the course. Problem Set 9 will be due Thursday, November 19, and may continue with questions from unit 5. Problem Set 10 will probably be due on Thursday, December 3, and will consist of questions on unit 6. Our last unit 7, on electromagnetism and special relativity, will probably not have a problem set (I am sorry), but it is still a very fun and interesting unit so I hope you will still give it your attention!

 Sunday, October 25, 2020

For the Discussion Question due on Tuesday, remember you are supposed to answer based on your every day experience! No references to notes or equations allowed!

For the Discussion Session on Wednesday, you should have read up to Notes 5-1 page 5. Unit 5 will continue until Friday, November 13.

Note 4-4 have been updated to discuss what happens if you choose the solution ω = -kc in Eq. (4.4.16).

All Notes and Video lectures for unit 5 are now uploaded.

 Wednesday, October 21, 2020

The recording of today's Discussion Session has been uploaded and is available for viewing. I have also posted the solution to Discussion Question 4.1. See the calendar page for the links.

Your solutions for Problem Set 6 have been graded, and the solutions are on Blackboard.

This week you should be finishing unit 4, and starting unit 5 by Monday. There is a very non-technical Discussion Question 5.1 due next week Tuesday, but there is NO problem set due next week! But do not relax too much -- Problem Set 8, due Thursday, November 5, will be worth 35 points and has some interesting problems on it.

Notes for unit 5 are now posted. Video lectures should get posted by Monday.

Reminder: the Mideterm Exam will be Wednesday, November 11. You might want to start reviewing, and bring questions to our Discussion Session next week. More info on the exam soon!

 Wendesday, October 14, 2020

The recording of today's Discussion Session has been uploaded and is available for viewing. I have also posted the solutions to Discussion Questions 3.1 (from last week) and 3.2 (from this week). See the calendar page for the links.

On the Videos page I have added the number of hours of recorded lectures in each unit so that the pacing of the course is a bit clearer. Considering that there are 3.72 hours for unit 4, I have added two more days to the calendar for this unit, so that the ratio of recordings/day is about the same as was for unit 3 (which is lower than what it was for unit 2). For next Wednesday you should read at least through Notes 4-2, which is enough to answer both the Discussion Question 4.1 due next week Tuesday, and Problem Set 7 due next week Thursday. The length of time allotted to units 5 and higher may be adjusted, once I've completed the notes and recordings for those units.

 Monday, October 12, 2020

This week you should finish up reading the notes for unit 3 by our Wednesday Discussion Session, then start reading the notes for unit 4. Discussion Question 3.2 is due Tuesday at 5pm, and Problem Set 6 is due on Thursday at 5pm.

All notes and video lectures for unit 4 are now posted.

When you write to me (by email or by Slack) with a question, whether on the material or on the homework, please consider instead posting it to the Discussion Board for the unit, or the Slack channel for the unit. If you are wondering about something, chances are some of your classmates might be wondering the same thing -- so if you post it to a class-wide forum, everyone will be able to see your question and my reply.

 Wednesday, October 7, 2020

The recording of today's Discussion Session has been uploaded and is available for viewing. The link is on the calendar page.

Please take a moment to fill out our midterm TA evaluation survey, your feedback is important and will be appreciated. You will find the survey at: https://webapps.pas.rochester.edu/secure/phpQ/

 Monday, October 5, 2020

Solutions to Problem Set 4 are now available on the Problem Sets page for the course on Blackboard.

You should have finished reading through Notes 3-2 for this Wednesday's discussion sesstion. Your reply to Discussion Question 3.1 is due Tuesday at 5pm. Your solutions to Problem Set 5 are due Thursday at 5pm.

 Wednesday, September 30, 2020

Your solutions to Problem Set 3 have been graded and you may see your grade and the TA's comments by going to the "My Grades" link on Blackboard. Please read the solutions to be sure you understand all aspects of the problems, and ask if you don't.

The recording of today's Discussion Session has been uploaded and is available for viewing. I see that when I started the discussion of Discussion Question 2.4, I said that the monopole q=0, and the dipole moment p≠0, but I wrote q=0 and p=0. It is of course the case in this question that p≠0. The solution to Discussion Question 2.4 is also posted. The links are on the Calendar page.

Problem Set 4 is due tomorrow, and then we will be finishing unit 2 and moving on to unit 3 on the Macroscopic Maxwell's Equations in Matter. Problem Set 5, due next week, will still be on material from unit 2, however the Discussion Question for next week will be on material from unit 3, so do start reading. All the notes and videos for unit 3 are now posted.

 Sunday, September 27, 2020

Solutions to Problem Set 3 will be available on the Problem Sets page for the course on Blackboard as of Monday 10am.

Discussion Question 2.4 is due on Tuesday by 5pm. For the Discussion Session on Wednesday, you should have read until the end of Unit 2. Problem Set 4 is due Thursday at 5pm.

 Wednesday, September 23, 2020

Solutions to Problem Set 2 may be found on the Problem Sets page for the course on Blackboard. Your graded solutions to Set 2 may be found on Blackboard using the "My Grades" link. Please be sure to review your graded work and the posted solutions carefully, to make sure you understand any errors you have made. If you have questions about how you were graded, please contact the TA. If you have questions understanding the material, please contact me or the TA.

The recording of today's Discussion Session has been uploaded and is available for viewing. I have also posted the solution to Discussion Question 2.2.2. The links to both can be found on the calendar page.

My office hour for Monday, September 28, is canceled, and I will not be available to answer question by email that day. To make up, I will have a special office hour on Tuesday, September 29, from 3:30-4:30pm. I will also have a special office hour for abroad students that day at 8am, but you must sign up by 6pm Monday if you wish to meet. If you wish to meet, please send me an email rather than using the sign up sheet for this one time.

 Thursday, September 17, 2020

The recording of yesterday's Discussion Session has been uploaded and is available for viewing. Unfortunately, I forgot to record the part where we discussed the solution to Discussion Question 2.2.1, so I made a short video explaining the solution to that problem and it is also posted. The links to both can be found on the calendar page.

The remaining video lectures for Unit 2 are now uploaded and available for viewing.

 Monday, September 14, 2020

Solutions to Problem Set 1 may be found on the Problem Sets page for the course on Blackboard. It is a good practice to read my solutions carefully, even if you did well on the problems, as you might see a different way to think about a problem. If you did not do well on a problem, you should certainly read the solutions to understand what mistakes you made, and contact me or the TA if you still do not understand. Don't let a homework problem pass by without understanding what it was about, and what the solution is!

Discussion question 2.2.1 is due this Tuesday by 5pm. You should have read through the end of Notes 2-2 by our discussion session on Wednesday. Problem Set 2 is due Thursday at 5pm.

In checking through the posted notes, I have found an occasional small error or typo. I fix these as I notice them. If you see something in the notes that you think is an error, please let me know.

 Thursday, September 10, 2020

The recording of yesterday's Discussion Session has been uploaded and is available for viewing. Go to the calendar page for the link.

Related to this weeks Discussion Question 1.4.2, here is a paper that discusses in detail the question of causality of the electic field within the Coulomb gauge formulation. You may not yet have all the background needed to read this psper (in particular the Green's function for the wave equation), but you are welcome to give it a try, or to refer back to it after completing the course. You may access the paper by going to the University Library's journal section and logging in with your UR NetID.

O. L. Brill and B. Goodman, Causality in the Coulomb Gauge, American Journal of Physics 35, 832 (1967).

 Monday, September 7, 2020

In response to some questions, I have clarified the statement of problem (3) on Problem Set I. Please take a look.

 Wednesday, September 2, 2020

The recording of today's Discussion Session has been uploaded and is available for viewing. Go to the calendar page for the link.

Note, next Monday is the Labor Day Holiday, so I will not be holding any office hours that day. If you have any questions, please post on the Discussion Board for Unit 1, or email. If you wish to chat, contact me and we can set up a Zoom meeting. Enjoy the long weekend!

 Monday, August 31, 2020

I hope you are all well and progressing in the course! As a reminder, you should have completed reading through the end of Notes 1-3 by this Wednesday's Discussion Session at 10:25 am. You also must enter your response to Discussion Question 1.1 (found in Notes 1-1) by this Tuesday 5 pm. If you have any questions about the material, please feel free to post on the Discussion Board for Unit 1.

Our TA, Olayinka, will have office hours on Wednesdays, 5:30 - 6:30 pm. Use his Zoom link, found on the PHY415 Home Page on Blackboard, to contact him.

Both Olayinka and I will have additional, early morning, office hours for those students who are taking this class from abroad, and for whom the regular afternoon office hours will not work well. I will be available on Mondays 8 - 9 am, and Olayinka will be available on Wednesdays at 8 - 9 am. If you are an abroad student and wish to chat with either of us, you must sign up in advance. See the Instructors page for further information.

 Thursday, August 27, 2020

Based on the polls taken during our Discussion Session yesterday, I have added some additional math review notes to Unit 1. For those who want to review Fourier Series and their use in deriving Fourier Transforms, see Notes 1-5-supp. For those who feel less than comfortable with vector calculus, I strongly recommend you read Chapter 1 of the undergraduate textbook Introduction to Electrodynamics, by D.J. Griffiths. I have posted my own handwritten Notes 1-supp that review the material in this chapter. We will not have time to review this material in the course, but I am happy to answer any questions during office hours, or if you send email or post on the Unit 1 Discussion Board. Knowing vector calculus is a prerequisite for this course, and it is essential that you be proficient in the topics covered in these notes to manage in this course.

On Blackboard, please upload a small headshot of yourself, so that this will appear next to your Discussion Board entries. This will help us get to recognize each other. To upload this picture, from your Blackboard Main page click on your name at the top right hand side of the page. This will display a drop down menu. Choose the Settings link, and from the menu that then appears choose Personal Information. In the resulting page choose Personalize My Settings. There you will see the option to upload an image for yourself.

On Zoom, please make sure your full first and last names appear in your Zoom window, and also upload a headshot that will appear when you turn your camera off. This will also help us to recognize each other. To do this, login to your Zoom account on rochester.zoom.us, click on the Profile link at the top of the left hand side of the page, then click Edit on the right of the top item. There you will see how to set your name and how to upload a headshot.

 Wednesday, August 26, 2020

The recording of today's Discussion Session has been uploaded and is available for viewing. Please go to the calendar page for the link. If you did not attend, note that the first 2/3 of the session was a review of the course organization and website, similar to the Welcome video. However in the last 1/3 of the session we started discussing some interesting problems in electrostatics. We will continue that discussion when we meet again next Wednesday.

Several students reported that they could not access the "Meet your Classmates" Discussion Board. I see now that one student has successfully posted, so please give it another try! Also, if you have not already, please make a short video introduction of yourself using the "Introduce Yourself" link on the Course Overview and Introduction page.

If you are going to be located physically away from Rochester, please email me to let me know, if you have not already done so. Also, please let me know as soon as possible if you want me to use something other than your UR email address for contacting you.

 Monday, August 24, 2020

Welcome to PHY 415, Electromagnetic Theory I, and welcome to Rochester!

This Home Page is the place to find announcements related to the course.

This website has all the information you need to take and do well in the course. If it is on this website, you are responsible for knowing it!

The Communications page has information about all the methods we will use to keep in touch with each other for this online class.

Please start the course by going to the Course Overview and Introduction.

There you should watch the introduction video, post a short note about yourself to the Meet Your Classmates Discussion Board, and read about the structure of this website. Note, to access several features of this website, such as viewing lecture videos, emailing classmates, posting to discussion boards, uploading homework, and viewing your grades, you must first login the the University's Blackboard system using your UR NetID.