Overview and Intended Learning Outcome

Quick Links

• Quick Links
• Announcements
• Syllabus and Schedule, Problem Sets, and Solutions
• Vital Information
• Textbook(s) and Lectures
• Policies and Grading

Announcements: see Canvas pages: Ph106b, Ph106c

Syllabus and Schedule, Problem Sets, and Solutions

Below you will find the outline of the E&M portion of Ph106bc.  I will update the details of the topics covered in lectures and suggested reading as the term progresses.  Assignments and exams will be made available via Canvas, about a week before the due date, so no effort is made here to list them.

The problem sets and solutions are only accessible via Canvas.  (Lecture notes are available to anyone.)

Note that this is the first year that Ph106bc is being taught on a MWF schedule, and the second year of the reorganization in which only Ph106b is a required course, so please bear with me as the syllabus is refined to satisfy these new constraints.  The distribution of topics among weeks is not likely to change much, but the distribution of topics among lectures is being worked out as the term progresses.  The specific material covered in each problem set will respond to the evolution of the syllabus, so problem sets will not be posted ahead of time.

Keep a copy of the lecture notes and problem sets handy on your computer or a USB stick.  Websites go down occasionally (seemingly especially during holidays), and a very modest bit of foresight can prevent this from disrupting the problem set due date schedule.  If there is a problem set update, or a lecture notes update relevant to a problem set, at a very late date and there is an outage (in the 24 hrs before a set is due), this policy will be suspended.

In the suggested reading, G stands for Introduction to Electrodynamics by Griffiths, LN for Lecture Notes, HM stands for Classical Electromagnetism by Heald and Marion, and J for Classical Elecrodynamics by Jackson.  Reading given in parentheses is optional (intended only to tell you where I am drawing material from).  The numbers in parentheses after each LN section listing is the number of LN slides (for my benefit).

Vital Information

Textbook(s) and Lectures

• Required: Introduction to Electrodynamics, Griffiths (4th edition!) available via the online textbook store.  No guarantees are made about whether the 3rd edition is sufficient for the course (though in the past it has been).
  
  
• Optional (all these should be available via the Course Reserves link in Canvas; the following links are supplementary and will be removed once the Course Reserves become available after the start of the term):
  

• Heald and Marion, Classical Electromagnetic Radiation
• Jackson, Classical Electrodynamics: the bible, but in general too advanced for this course. While this is not a required text, many students in past years have found it useful to buy it.  If you stay in physics, you will need it.  The library seems to only have hard copy of this, but we had an electronic copy for 2019-2020, so I will request access to that electronic copy again.
  
• Landau and Lifshiftz, The Classical Theory of Fields
  
• Landau and Lifshiftz, Electrodynamics of Continuous Media
  


• Lecture/Problem Session/Office Hour Live Slides and Recordings
  
  
  • Lectures will be presented as PowerPoint slides screen-shared via Zoom and file-shared via this OneDrive link.  (Accessible only to Caltech Office365 accounts.)  By viewing these slides in parallel with or instead of the Zoom lecture, you can scroll back and forth between slides on the fly.  The PPTX and PDFs will then be archived to the Canvas site for easier reference.
  • (Problem sessions and office hours may use the same system; the person running the session will decide.)
    
  • Zoom links and recordings will be available on the cloud from the course Canvas site (see "Zoom" in the sidebar).
    
    
• Lecture Notes and Strategy:
  
  2021 version, updated 2021/01/27 06:30: pdf
  2020 final version: pdf
  
  My lecture notes generally follow Griffiths.  My goals in making them available to you are:
  
  • To provide clarification of points in Griffiths that I thought deserved more or alternate explanation.
    
  • To present additional explanation or material derived from other texts; the references will be provided in the notes and/or on the syllabus above.
  • To get all the calculational work down on the page, correctly, so that I don't have to do it in class.  In particular, text in magenta is calculational work that I skip over in class but which you are responsible.  If steps are unclear, ask the TAs or in the following lecture.
    
  
  I do not consider myself responsible for providing updated copies of the lecture notes well ahead of class time -- they are being updated as the course is being given.  The 2020 version of the notes is provided above and is frozen.  Change from 2020 will  be minimal.  Updated notes will be posted promptly after class.
  
  The lecture notes may relieve you of the obligation of coming to lecture.  That's your choice.  Some students benefit from being able to receive information aurally and to interact during that process; others prefer to read it off the page.  I hope the interactive nature of the lectures will make them worth the time to attend.  But whatever works for you.  Grades are based only on the written work you hand back.  
  
  But please do not delude yourself into thinking that, because the lecture notes are available, you can just skim through all the material for the week on the day before a problem set or exam is due and expect to immediately become expert.  Learning requires time to mull over concepts in your mind, for your subconscious to work on ideas and problems.  If you choose not to come to class, please be disciplined about keeping up with the material in your own study time.
  
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Policies and Grading

The course will use the same policies at Prof. Fuller's Ph106a policies, available from his course's Canvas site.  Refinements and clarifications:

• Extension requests should be sent to me, the course instructor, not the TAs.  I do not check email continuously, and typically not after 5:30 pm on weeknights (until possibly after 8 pm), so your extension requests must allow time for non-immediate response.
  
• You may have one silver bullet extension for Ph106b and one for Ph106c.  Only one silver bullet extension is allowed for all of Ph106c, not one for each half of the class (E&M vs. optics).
• For Ph106b, the split will be
• 50% problem sets
• 25% midterm exam
• 25% final exam
• For Ph106c, the split is TBD but will likely be the same.
  
• Extra credit for problem session attendance: To encourage attendance at the Monday problem-solving sessions, we will offer extra credit.  Here are the rules on the extra credit:
• The extra credit will be added after the letter grade boundaries are decided, so students who do not attend will not be penalized.
  
• Students who miss no more than one problem session in Ph106b will be guaranteed one +/- grade increment of extra credit.  Students who attend fewer sessions will receive a proportional point increment.  This may or may not result in a +/- grade increment depending on the details of the person's numerical grade.
• If you have a time conflict with the problem session time, contact me and we will find an alternate solution.
• Honor code and Collaboration policy tweaks
• You may use the previous years' exams and solutions posted on the Canvas website when doing problem sets or exams, but only those!  You may not use previous years' exams or solutions that are not available from this website.
• You may use any other materials provided by the instructor or TAs, including material from the problem sessions or office hours.
  

Grade Distributions

Ph106b (2020; refresh cache to make sure you get new versions):

Ph106c (2020):







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