General Physics: Electricity and Magnetism

Catalog description

Calculus-based introduction to classical electricity and magnetism, including such topics as, electric charge and electric fields, Gauss's law, electric potential, capacitance, current, resistance, and circuits, magnetic fields, and fields due to currents, induction and inductance, magnetism of matter, Maxwell's equations, and electromagnetic oscillations. This course is designed to provide students with a working knowledge of the elementary physics principles mentioned above, as well as their applications, and to enhance their conceptual understanding of physical laws. The exact model varies at different campuses due to different resources and class sizes. Students attend several class meetings including at least one lab or activity period per week. Use of a combination of computer-based and traditional lab exercises is expected and collaborative learning exercises will be used in both small class session. Use of a combination of computer-based and traditional lab exercises is expected and collaborative learning exercises will be used in both small class settings. The introduction of data acquisition and analysis methods (often making use of modern computer tools) will be stressed in the laboratory/activity period. As an honors course, compared to PHYS 212 , in this course, examples from the current research literature and more applications to physics research/applications can be made The course is an important prerequisite for later work in many science and engineering disciplines.