3500 Electromagnetic Fields I examines the laws of electrostatic and magnetostatic fields based on vector calculus and a local formulation. Topics covered include Gauss’s law, potentials, energy and work, the multipole expansion, Laplace's equation and boundary conditions, linear dielectrics, electric polarization, electric displacement, capacitance, magnetic fields B and H, vector potentials, Lorentz force, magnetization and Maxwell’s equations.

PR: PHYS 2055 and Mathematics 3202

The aim of this course is to show how the equations of electrostatic and magnetostatic can be derived from a local or microscopic description which also leads to the famous Maxwell’s equations which describe the properties of electromagnetic waves. While some results might not be new to students they are derived rigorously using vector calculus and fundamental theorems (divergence and curl). We re-examine the formulation of field, Gauss’s law, potential, energy and work. Special analytical techniques such as multipole expansion, solution to Laplace's equation for different boundary conditions are also covered. Finally, properties of linear dielectrics and magnetic materials are described and the concept of electric polarization, electric displacement, auxiliary magnetic field, vector potential, magnetization.