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 in vacuum and in transparent media.

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 and in transparent media; 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

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 clarity of expression and command of language; 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, critical thinking skills.

For students with disabilities or DSA, please refer to the Further Information section.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Compensatory and dispensatory measures Disability/Invalidity/Specific Learning Disorder

Dispensatory measures and compensatory tools are intended to enable students to achieve the same learning objectives as their fellow students, not to facilitate the examination.

The use of compensatory tools and the application of dispensatory measures must be authorised in advance by the teacher in agreement with the Referee.

To take advantage of the adaptations during the examination, fill in the Adaptation request form; the request will be automatically sent by the system to the teacher in charge of the teaching, to the Contact Person of your School/Area/Department and in copy to the Sector; you will also receive a copy of the request sent by e-mail.

The adjustments available to students are as follows:

• Additional time (+30% DSA)
• Additional time (+50% disability/invalidity)
• Additional time during oral exams to organise the answer
• Calculator (programmable and graphing calculators are not allowed)
• Conceptual Maps
• Tables and/or Forms
• Take the exam in written form
• Take the exam in oral form
• Tutor reader (for written tests only)
• Tutor-writer (for written tests only)

Your request for adaptations must be submitted at least 7 working days before the scheduled exam date.

All information for students with disabilities and DSA is available on the webpage: Services for students with disabilities or DSA | UniGe | University of Genoa

Reference for inclusion: Sergio Di Domizio - sergio.didomizio@unige.it