This is the main web-page for the course Electrodynamics PHYS30441 (M). Material will appear here as we progress through the course.
If you are looking for some revision material, here are a couple of (optional, but very useful) exercise sheets to help you revise/practice vector calculus and special relativity:
Optional Revision Exercises 1: Vector CalculusIn solving these problems you may find the following very brief preliminary remarks on using index notation for vector calculus useful. In addition, here is a somewhat more extensive introduction to using index notation for vector calculus by John Crimaldi of University of Colorado, Boulder.
Optional Revision Exercises 2: Special Relativity (associated with Lecture 10 onwards)The interactive sessions scheduled for Mondays 14:00 and Wednesdays 9:00 will be used in a fairly flexible fashion. I shall use some of these sessions to give "live" lectures on some of the core material, to complement the complete set of pre-recorded mini-lectures. In addition we'll have some informal bonus "examples class"-style interactive sessions. I'm also happy to have some open "Q&A"-style sessions on the lecture material and exercises, if you would find these useful. I am happy for the balance among these various activities to be influenced to a degree by student opinions/requests; please let me know your views/suggestions!
The programme for each week's face-to-face sessions scheduled for Mondays 14:00 and Wednesdays 9:00 will be advertised at least one week in advance on the course web-site.
N.B. Each week I shall make explicitly clear which mini-lectures are "duplicated" by a live lecture and, if appropriate, which mini-lectures need to be followed on-line, because the material is not covered in a live lecture.
I know that some people would like to get an overview of where the course will be going. In addition, I know that some people like to work a bit ahead of the official timetable. In this spirit, I shall leave up a single web-page summarising the entire set of pre-recorded mini-lectures from the course.
In the same spirit, I provide here the complete Course Summary from last year. However, please be aware that I shall be making some changes to the lecture material and the order in which it is presented. I shall be making updates to this document as we progress through the course. N.B. This document is intended to provide a very concise summary of the main results. It is NOT a textbook! For recommended text books see the list given below, as well as the week-by-week web-pages for more specific reading recommendations.
Will be updated here as we progress through the semester.
Week 1: Course Overview, Electrostatics Revision, and Consequences of the Finite Speed of Light
Week 2: Solutions to Laplace's Equation, Magnetostatics Revision, and Some Topics in Vector Calculus
Week 4: Special Relativity in the Minkowski Representation (Index Notation)
The programme for further weeks will appear as we progress through the semester.
preliminary remarks on using index notation for vector calculus useful. In addition, here is a somewhat more extensive introduction to using index notation for vector calculus by John Crimaldi of University of Colorado, Boulder.
Optional Revision Exercises 2: Special Relativity (associated with Lecture 10 onwards)D.J. Griffiths, Introduction to Electrodynamics, (Cambridge University Press, 4th edition, 2017) ............... If you click on this link and sign in via your university account/password you get access to an e-book for this text.
M.A. Heald and J.B. Marion, Classical Electromagnetic Radiation, (Academic Press, 3rd Edition, 1995).
J.D. Jackson, Classical Electrodynamics, (John Wiley & Sons, 3rd edition, 1999).
R.P. Feynman, The Feynman Lectures on Physics, Volume II, `Mainly Electromagnetism', (Addison Wesley, 1964).
A. Zangwill, Modern Electrodynamics, (Cambridge University Press, 2013)
G.B. Rybicki and A.P.Lightman, Radiative Processes in Astrophysics, (John Wiley & Sons, 1979)
M. Schwartz, Principles of Electrodynamics, (Dover Publications, 1972)
Here is a link to reading list for this course lodged at the John Rylands library. This includes a reference to the book "Introduction to Electrodynamics" by D.J. Griffiths, which is available `for free' to students on this course as an e-book from the library.
You may already be aware that the Feynman Lectures on Physics are available for free online from Caltech: Volume I, Volume II.
Here is the Course summary and some comments on the format and style of the exam ..... Please let me know if you find any typos or other mistakes!
A summary of useful formulae concerning vector calculus, coordinate systems, etc. (from D.J. Griffiths, Introduction to Electrodynamics.)
The syllabus for the course as given in the Blue Book
Local gauge invariance and the Schroedinger Equation: R. Barlow Eur. J. Phys. 11 (1990) 45.
Pictures of the electric and magnetic fields produced by a point charge moving with constant velocity
Proof of the general Lienard-Wiechert fields for a moving point charge (extra-curricular material - not needed for the exam)
Patterns of radiation produced by an accelerating point charge
Material relating to past exams may be found on Blackboard.
Do you have any questions about the physics, the lectures, or the example sheets? Do you have any feedback on the lectures or other aspects of the course? Did you find any mistakes anywhere? I'd be very interested to hear from you!