Important Remarks
This course assumes students have taken Sho’s General Physics 1 (and passed the exams, preferably). If you are a student who wishes to enroll but has not taken Sho’s General Physics 1, please contact Sho before selecting the course. (Otherwise it will be difficult to pass the exams.)
For exceptional course registration (異常處理/加簽), you are advised to send an email to Sho by (at the latest) February 28th. (Still, the lecture room has a finite area.)
Outline
An introductory course to electromagnetism. The goal is Maxwell’s equations in vacuum (in integral form), which encapsulate the basic laws of electromagnetism.
You are required to have firm understanding on basic calculus and vector arithmetic as well as foundational understanding of mechanics and waves. You first learn the concept of fields, which is the most crucial in electromagnetism (and even in modern physics). You then learn various laws of electromagnetism and reach Maxwell’s equations, the monumental achievement in 19th-century physics. You notice that the equations contain not only the electromagnetic laws you have learned but also the electromagnetic waves, known as lights.
Several important topics are not covered in this lecture, which include electromagnetic fields in matter, vector calculus in cylindrical/spherical coordinates, and the differential formulation of Maxwell’s equations. Circuit analysis is not treated in detail, as it is addressed in a dedicated course (Circuit Theory I).
Guidance document
- gp2_supplemental_2025.pdf for Academic Year 2025
- Hints for Writing and Submitting Assignments
Textbook
Serway, Jewett, and Peroomian, Physics for Scientists and Engineers (with Modern Physics), 11th edition. Cengage Learning.
- Attendants are assumed to have learned Chapters 1‒9 and 15‒17 in Volume 1.
- This course corresponds to Chapters 22‒33 (Volume 2).
- Sho strongly recommends you to bring the book (printed version) to the lecture every week.
Students’ Goals
- I am familiar with line integrals and surface integrals of vectors.
- I can describe/calculate electromagnetic forces between charged objects or electric currents.
- I am used to dealing with fields (electric field and magnetic flux density ) and I can use basic laws of electromagnetism to calculate them in simple situations.
- I can analyze electric potential (voltage) in terms of electric fields and relate it to work and potential energy.
- I can explain Maxwell’s equations and discuss light as an electromagnetic wave, including its basic physical properties.
- I can describe the microscopic and field-theoretic basis of electric circuits and circuit elements.
Schedule (2025‒2)
- 1 (Feb. 27)
- National Holiday (no class)
- 2 (Mar. 6)
- Coulomb's law. Electric field.
- 3 (Mar. 13)
- Continuous charge distribution.
- 4 (Mar. 20)
- Gauss's law. Electrostatic potential.
- 5 (Mar. 27)
- Electrostatic potential.
- 6 (Apr. 3)
- National Holiday (no class)
- 7 (Apr. 10)
- Capacitor.
- 8 (Apr. 17)
- Electric current. Resistor.
- 9 (Apr. 24)
- Midterm Exam
- 10 (May 1)
- National Holiday (no class)
- 11 (May 8)
- Magnetic field. Lorentz force.
- 12 (May 15)
- Biot-Savart law and Ampère's law. Magnetism.
- 13 (May 22)
- Faraday's law.
- 14 (May 29)
- Inductor.
- 15 (Jun. 5)
- Lorentz equations. Electromagnetic waves.
- 16 (Jun. 12)
- Term Exam
Other Information
- Past exam problems are available at Sho’s Learning Resource page.
- See another page for previous years’ lectures.