Physics 704 - Spring 2011

Contact Information
Learning Outcomes
Methods of Evaluation
Course Content
Course Schedule

Contact Information

Lectures: MWF 11:15 AM - 12:05 PM
Lecture Room: PSC 115
Professor: Prof. Milind V. Purohit
Office: PSC 609
Recitation: Thu 2:30 (Rogers Room?)
Phone: 777-6996
Home Page: "Milind V. Purohit's Home Page"

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the term, successful students should be able to do the following:

Students are expected to know electrodynamics at the PHYS 703 level before they take this course. Only students who have done well in PHYS 703 should take this course. Also, students should know mathematical methods of physics.

Classwork

Classwork in the form of a project report and presentation based on a topic of relevance to the course but outside of textbooks, for instance (but not confined to) topics of recent interest. Examples include "witricity", beam-beam interactions in accelerators, northern lights, physics of antennas, 1000 TeV electrons in the Crab nebula, etc. Topics need to be approved in the first week of the semester and regular meetings on progress are encouraged. 10% of the total course grade is based on this work. Students may collaborate with up to one other person, or may do the project by themselves. Collaboration should be entered into if you wish to explore a topic in great depth; reports from collaborations will be expected to be stronger than individual reports (for the same grade). There have been some misunderstandings regarding scope and topics of presentations in the past. Hopefully, the following helps clarify by emphasizing certain simple points:

Methods of Evaluation

Students are evaluated through the semester using class participation, homework, in-class tests as well as a final exam.

Grading: Students turning in less than 70% of homeworks will automatically earn an F grade. For other students, the course score will be calculated as follows:
Classwork: 10%, Homework: 30%, Test 1: 10%, Test 2: 10%, Final Exam: 40%.

Homework:
Homework problems will be assigned every week and will be due at the Wednesday lecture of the next week.
Homework that is up to one week late earns 50% points; after that no credit will be given.
Attendance: Mandatory!


Course Content:

The course content is derived from a variety of sources, including the texts below. For examples of what is covered week by week, please see the course schedule pages for previous years:
PHYS 704 Course Schedule, 2010
PHYS 704 Course Schedule, 2009

Texts:

In this course we focus on a study of electromagnetic wave propagation through media (and waveguides), a relativistic formulation of electrodynamics and also applications of Maxwell's equations to radiation, diffraction and charged particles. Thus, we aim to cover important topics from the second half of the textbook by Jackson, chapters 8-14.

In the previous semester's prequel to this course, i.e., in PHYS 703, the basic concepts of electrodynamics are covered: electrostatics, multipoles, dielectrics, magnetostatics, Maxwell Equations, electromagnetic waves and waveguides, i.e., we cover most of Chapters 1-6 in the textbook by Jackson.


Office of Student Disability Services policy statement

"Any student with a documented disability should contact the Office of Student Disability Services at 803-777-6142 to make arrangements for appropriate accommodations."

Detailed Course Schedule


This page is maintained by "Milind V. Purohit"