Course content

Electrostatics: Coulomb's law, electric field and force, Gauss' law, electric potential and energy. Conductors, capacitors, and dielectrics.

Electricity: Current, resistance, electromotive force, and direct current circuits.

Magnetostatics: Magnetic field, force, moment and energy. Magnetic dipole. Biot-Savart's law. Ampere's law. Magnetic flux. Magnetic materials.

Electromagnetic induction: Faraday's law. Lenz' law. Inductance. Alternating current circuits. Electromagnetic waves.

Experimental methods: Measuring physical quantities. Data acquisition. Interpretation. Documentation.

Learning outcome

KNOWLEDGE | The candidate should among other things have knowledge about:

• Fundamental laws and concepts in electricity and magnetism, especially with regard to Maxwell's laws.
• Electrical circuits and the most common components such: as resistors, capacitors, and inductors.
• The properties of static electric and magnetic fields and how they arise.
• The properties of simple, time-dependent electric and magnetic fields and what kind of physical phenomena they generate.
• Electromagnetic waves and their properties.
• Important historical experiments in the field of electricity and magnetism.

SKILLS | The candidate should among other things be able to:

• Analyze different problems in electromagnetism using mathematical methods involving vectors and simple differential and integral calculus, both analytically and numerically.
• Analyze electric circuits to compute currents and voltage drops, both in stationary and time-dependent situations - Solve Maxwell equations for simple systems.
• Have a rudimentary grasp on how experimental equipment related to electricity and magnetism can be used (this is achieved via lab exercises).

GENERAL COMPETENCY | The candidate should among other things be able to:

• Account for the importance of electricity and magnetism in society, especially with regard to technological applications, and give concrete examples of the latter.
• Point to a plausible physical origin of simple electromagnetic phenomena in nature, based on what the candidate has learned in the course about fundamental laws and concepts in electricity and magnetism.

Learning methods and activities

Lectures, computational and experimental projects, compulsory laboratory exercises, and compulsory calculation exercises. Expected workload in the course is 225 hours.

The frontal lectures are held in English.

Compulsory assignments

• Calculation exercises
• Laboratory work

Recommended previous knowledge

Basic physics from upper secondary school, and FY1001 Mechanical Physics. Mathematics corresponding to TMA4100, alternatively MA1101 and MA1201.

Course materials

Young & Freedman: University Physics; or Lillestøl, Hunderi, Lien: Generell fysikk, Bind 2: Varmelære og elektromagnetisme.

Alternative literature: Griffiths: Introduction to electrodynamics; Tipler & Mosca: Volume 2: Electricity and magnetism; and others.

Credit reductions