OVERVIEW

The course presents the fundamental laws of electromagnetism in vacuum and the main optical phenomena.

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Acquisition and understanding, also through laboratory activities, of the fundamental concepts of electromagnetism in vacuum and the basic principles of the main optical phenomena.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

The course aims to provide the fundamental concepts of electromagnetism in vacuum and an introduction to electromagnetic waves and the main optical phenomena.

At the end of the module, the student will be able to i) understand the origin of electric and magnetic fields and know their properties; ii) extend the concepts acquired in mechanics to situations involving forces and energies of an electromagnetic nature; iii) describe the properties of electromagnetic waves in vacuum; iv) understand the mechanisms underlying the phenomena of interference and diffraction; v) solve simple exercises on the course topics.

PREREQUISITES

Knowledge of the main concepts of first year physics (dimensional analysis, vectors, laws of dynamics, conservation of energy)

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.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

Lectures:

Electric charge and electric field

Electric charge. Conductors and insulators. Coulomb’s law. The electric field. Gauss’ law. Electric potential. Capacitance and capacitors. Energy stored in a charged capacitor.

Electric current

Current density. Resistance and resistivity. Ohm’s law. Electric circuits. Kirchhoff's laws. Power in electric circuits. RC circuits.

Magnetic field

Lorentz force. Magnetic force on a current-carrying wire. Biot-Savart law. Force between two parallel currents. Ampère’s law. Magnetic flux. Faraday-Neumann-Lenz’s law. Induced electric field. Inductance. Self-induction. RL circuits. Energy stored in a magnetic field.

Maxwell equations and electromagnetic waves

Ampère-Maxwell’s law. Displacement current. Maxwell’s equations in integral and differential form. Electromagnetic wave equation. Electromagnetic plane 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. Reflection and refraction of the light.

Wave Optics

Interference. Diffraction.

Laboratory experiments:

DC circuits (Series and parallel connection of resistors; measurement of ohmic and non-ohmic I-V characteristics)

RC circuits, measurement of the time constant.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

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

Slides and exercises uploaded in Aulaweb

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

ANNALISA RELINI (President)

MARINA PUTTI

LUCA VATTUONE (Substitute)

LESSONS

LESSONS START

Classes start at the end of September. The time schedule is available at  https://easyacademy.unige.it/portalestudenti/

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 in solving exercises on the topics covered in the course. Partial written tests will be carried out during the course. Passing the partial tests will allow direct access to the oral test.
Students who have achieved a grade of at least 15/30 in each of the partial tests or in the overall written test are admitted to the oral exam. The grade of the written test will be lost if it is not followed by the oral exam within the same academic year.
The oral exam consists of a discussion of the written test(s) plus two questions on the course topics. In case that greater in-depth analysis is required, the number of questions may be higher, either to achieve an excellent grade or to reach the level required to pass the exam. 

ASSESSMENT METHODS

The written test 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 solve the exercise; iv) assess whether the numerical result obtained makes sense.

To evaluate the written test, the following parameters will be taken into account: the correct setting of the solution of the exercise, the correctness of the literal solution obtained, the congruence of the numerical solution obtained.

The oral exam will ascertain the ability to: i) present the requested topic with language properties; ii) describe simple applications of the physical laws under consideration.

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 technical terminology, the capacity for critical reasoning.

Exam schedule

FURTHER INFORMATION

Students who have valid certification of physical or learning disabilities on file with the University and who wish to discuss possible accommodations or other circumstances regarding lectures, coursework and exams, should speak both with the instructor and with Professor Sergio Di Domizio (sergio.didomizio@unige.it), the Department’s disability liaison.