AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Acquisition and understanding of the fundamental concepts of electromagnetism and knowledge of the basic elements of electromagnetism in vacuum and in materials. Increased learning and synthesis skills.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the second module, the student will be able to i) understand the mechanisms underlying the dielectric behavior of the materials; ii) understand the origin of paramagnetism and diamagnetism in materials; iii) know the main properties of ferromagnetic materials; iv) know the properties of electromagnetic waves in vacuum and in transparent materials; v) to describe the behavior of an electromagnetic wave at the interface between two materials.

TEACHING METHODS

Traditional lectures; exercises solved by the lecturer with the student participation; laboratory experiments performed by the students in the presence of the teacher, with experiment tracks provided in advance.

Classroom hours: 66
Hours employed in guided tutorial:6

Hours employed in tutorial: 20

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

Electrical field in insulators
Dielectric materials and constant dielectric. Potential and field generated by an electric dipole. Electric dipole approximation and field generated by a system of charges. Dielectric properties of insulators; Polarizability for orientation and deformation. Vector polarization and dielectric constant. Electrostatic equations in the presence of dielectrics: electric shift vector. Boundary conditions in the presence of dielectrics. The Clausius–Mossotti relation. Brief remarks on ferroelectric compounds.

Magnetism in materials
Magnetic moment and microscopic currents. Diamagnetism and paramagnetism. Magnetization, Curie Law. Magnetic material: magnetization current and magnetic field in matter. General equations of magnetostatics in the presence of magnetized materials. Boundary conditions in the presence of magnetic materials. Ferromagnetic materials; Magnetic circuits and Hopkinson's law. Hysteresis loop of a iron. Soft and hard magnetic materials: main applications.

Electric oscillations. Alternating current
AC current. RLC series circuit. Transformer

Electromagnetic waves
EM wave energy, wave intensity and Pointing vector. Electromagnetic radiation generated by an oscillating dipole and spherical wave. EM wave polarization. Maxwell equations in transparent media and refractive index. dSnell's Law: Reflection and Refraction of the Light. The intensity of reflexed and refracted waves (Fresnel's laws). Absorbing materials: absorption coefficient and complex refractive index.

 

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

D. Halliday, R. Resnick, J. Walker - Fundamentals of Physics, 10th edition, vol.2 - Wiley

Slides of lessons uploaded in Aulaweb

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

ANNALISA RELINI (President)

LUCA VATTUONE

MARINA PUTTI (President Substitute)

LESSONS

LESSONS START

Lessons start the last week of February

Class schedule

The timetable for this course is available here: Portale EasyAcademy

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

The exam includes a written test and an oral test.
The written test consists of two partial written tests relating to the topics of each module or a final written test on the overall program.
The partial written tests relating to the individual modules consist in solving exercises on the topics covered in the modules. The total written test consists in solving exercises relating to both modules.
Oral exam: students who have achieved a grade of at least 15/30 in each of the partial tests or in the final written test are admitted to the oral exam.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

The written exam will evaluate the ability to: i) interpret the text of the proposed exercise and outline the problem; ii) identify the physical laws involved and the related equations to be applied; iii) quantitatively resolve the exercise; iv) evaluate the reasonableness of the numerical result obtained.
In order to evaluate the written test, the following parameters will be taken into account: the correct setting of the exercise, the correctness of the literal solution obtained, the congruence of the numerical solution obtained.
The oral exam will allow to ascertain the ability to: i) introduce the requested topic with language properties; ii) describe simple applications of the physical laws under consideration.
In order to evaluate the oral exam, the following parameters will be taken into account: the level of understanding of the topic, the quality of the presentation, the correct use of the specialist vocabulary, the capacity for critical reasoning.

Exam schedule