Course Outline for PHYS 7590; Winter 2024


  • Course Information: www.physics.umanitoba.ca/~khodr/PHYS7590-W24. All important information pertaining to the course, including a link to the assigned homework problems and their solutions, will be posted on that page.
  • Professor: Khodr Shamseddine.
  • Email: khodr.shamseddine@umanitoba.ca
  • Office: 207 Allen Building, phone 474-6207.
  • Lecture Time and Place: MWF 11:30 am- 12:20 pm in 330 Allen Building.
  • Consultation Times: Monday and Wednesday 2:00-3:00 pm, or by appointment (to set up such an appointment, email me or talk to me after the lecture.)

  • Textbook: The textbook for the course is Jackson, J. D., Classical Electrodynamics, (New York: Wiley, 1999) 3rd edition.
  • Topics: We will cover selective material from Chapters 1-7, 11 of the book. Topics will include: electrostatics, boundary-value problems and Green’s functions; magnetostatics; Maxwell’s equations and conservation laws; the wave equation and propagation of waves; special theory of relativity. The following is a tentative schedule for the course:

 

Week

Topics

Readings

1

Electrostatics: Poisson and Laplace equations, Green’s theorem

Chapter 1, Jackson

2-4

Boundary value problems I

Chapter 2, Jackson

4-6

Boundary value problems II, spherical coordinates

Chapter 3, Jackson

7-8

Electric field in macroscopic media, Magnetostatics, Faraday’s Law

Sections 4.3, 4.4, 5.1-5.4, 5.8, 5.9 and 5.15, Jackson

8

Maxwell’s equations, the wave equation, conservation laws

Chapter 6, Jackson

9

Plane electromagnetic waves and wave propagation

Chapters 7, Jackson

10-12

Special theory of relativity

Chapter 11, Jackson- notes to be provided

  • Homework Assignments: There will be a problem set assigned every other week (posted on www.physics.umanitoba.ca/~khodr/PHYS7590-W24/homework.html) and due two weeks later. You will receive the assignments also via the online grading system Crowdmark and you will have to submit the solutions on Crowdmark too; to learn how to do that please click on this link https://crowdmark.com/help/completing-and-submitting-an-assignment/. These assignments will be due at 11:59 pm on the due date. Since uploading the solutions may take some time, please do not wait till the last minute to submit your solutions. Late assignments will not be accepted; so please hand in what you have by the due date.
  • Final Exam: The final exam will be two parts:
    • Part I: will be in-person and will be open book and open notes. It will be 3 hours in length; the exact date and time of the exam (in April) will be announced later in class and on www.physics.umanitoba.ca/~khodr/PHYS7590-W24.
    • Part II: will be take-home.
  •  Course Grade: Final grades will be determined as follows:
    • Assignments - 50%
    • Final Exam - 50% (Part I: 35%, Part II: 15%)

Then the letter grades will be assigned based on the following chart.

 

Percentage course score

Letter grade

90-100 %

A+

80-89 %

A

75-79 %

B+

70-74 %

B

65-69 %

C+

60-64 %

C

50-59 %

D

0-49 %

F


PHYS 7590 page

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