PY406 is the second of a two-part advanced electromagnetism course for undergraduates. We will cover electromagnetic waves; potentials and fields of moving charges; radiation, and special relativity.

Lectures: Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays 2:30 pm – 3:20 pm, SCI 117

Section: Fridays 3:35 pm – 4:25 pm, PRB 148

Faculty Instructor: Prof. Hongwan Liu (hongwan@bu.edu). Office Hours: Wednesdays, 4:30 pm – 6:00 pm, PRB 573

Postdoctoral Instructor: Dr. Nicholas DePorzio (deporzio@bu.edu). Office Hours: Mondays, 1:30 – 2:30 pm, PRB 555

Graduate Teaching Fellow: Gautam Naik (gautamkn@bu.edu). Office Hours: Wednesday, 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm, SCI 350

Learning Assistant: Leo Rava (leor@bu.edu). Office Hours: Tuesday, 3:30 pm – 5:30 pm, SCI 121 (Undergraduate Lounge)

Syllabus: Available here, and will be updated throughout the course.

Lecture Notes: Continually updated as one single document, available here.

Homework: Problem sets are posted on GradeScope, and your solutions should be submitted there as well. All grades will also be posted there. Solutions will be posted here. You can check the due dates on either GradeScope or on the solutions page. Problem sets are generally released on Wednesdays, and are due the end of the following Wednesday. Late homework without reason will be penalized at 20% of the total points per day, and will not be accepted more than two days late. Failure to assign problems to pages on GradeScope may also result in a 20% penalty.

Exams: There will be two in-class midterms and an in-person final. These exams will be closed-book, but a formula sheet will be provided. You are free to ask for things to be put on the formula sheet on Piazza in the week before the exam, I’ll usually be okay with it. The tentative exam schedule is as follows:

  • Midterm 1: Wednesday, February 18, in class
  • Midterm 2: Wednesday, March 25, in class
  • Final: Monday, May 4, 3–5 pm, location TBA

Grading: Problem Sets 10%, Midterm 1 25%, Midterm 2 25%, Final 35%, Class Participation 5%. Grades will be curved.

Online Discussion: All announcements, questions and discussions (about both logistics and physics) should be posted on the Piazza page for this course.

Students’ Responsibility: Students should know and understand the provisions of the BU Academic Conduct Code, CAS Academic Conduct Code and the BU Code of Student Responsibilities.

Materials: The course will follow Griffiths Introduction to Electrodynamics Chapters 8–12, but not strictly (see below for an explanation). Other textbooks that may be helpful are:

  • Heald and Marion Classical Electromagnetic Radiation
  • Purcell Electricity and Magnetism
  • Schwartz Principles of Electrodynamics
  • Tong Lectures on Theoretical Physics, Volume 2: Electromagnetism

There are also plenty of (free!) resources out there that cover all the material in this course several times over, including by the following authors:

Use of AI: AI is now a fact of life, and when used properly can be extremely powerful. You are free to use AI to help you along in this course, but please use it critically, and do not accept anything it tells you on face value. Please also make sure you use it wisely to support your learning. Keep in mind that the vast majority of the grade will come from the exams, and the key to doing well on the exams is to work through and thoroughly understand the problem sets. If you use AI for your problem sets, please indicate clearly where and how you used it. You will not be penalized.

Remarks

  1. There’s no way around this: this course is going to be hard. But physics is hard in general, and most things that are worth learning are going to be hard. I want the course to also be rewarding, and for you to come away having learned a lot. But you must be prepared for quite a bit of work! Make sure that you use all of the resources that are available to you (your peers, Piazza, office hours, the internet, AI etc.) to successfully learn the material.

  2. While this course will follow Griffiths mostly, there will be two main changes. First, you will see a lot more index notation, which Griffiths almost entirely avoids but I don’t think is very scary at all. It will help make derivations more transparent, and will absolutely be essential for special relativity. Second, I have a different take on how to teach special relativity compared to Griffiths, which hopefully you’ll find better. Other changes will be less dramatic, but feel free to consult Griffiths and learn from there if it suits you better (everyone is different)!

  3. We will use two sets of units in this class: we will start with SI units, which you should be familiar with from PY405, and then adopt the convention $c = 1$ when we hit special relativity, which is a partial adoption of what’s called natural units. SI units are great for precision and standardization, but the downside is that you have to carry around a bunch of $\mu_0$’s, $\varepsilon_0$’s and $c$’s around. You should get used to different units conventions, since many of them are still very much in use!

  4. In a similar vein, you should get used to reading formulas in different notation. While I understand the choices made by Griffiths, I’m really not a fan of some of the conventions, and will use my own notation in my notes and in lectures.

  5. The use of Mathematica is encouraged, but keep in mind that you are expected to be familiar enough with the mechanics of performing calculations to do so during the in-class midterms and exams. If it’s clearly only going to take a few lines, and doesn’t involve crazy special functions, please make sure you can do it by hand if necessary.

  6. Working in groups on problem sets is also highly encouraged, but please indicate at the top of your solutions who you worked with, and always write up the solution yourself. If you would like to work with someone but are having trouble finding people to work with, let me know.

  7. You should feel comfortable asking me for reasonable and stochastically occurring accommodations. Please plan ahead and ask for them early. Students who require accommodations throughout the course should approach BU Disability & Access Services.

  8. Every effort should be made to maintain an open and respectful environment in class, where everyone feels comfortable expressing their opinions and asking questions.