656: Fields and Waves - II


Instructor: Samir D. Mathur (Office: M2026 Physics Research Building)

Fall 2011: Mon, Wed, Thurs, Fri, 8.30-9.18 am, Smith 1005


Text: Introduction to Electrodynamics, David J. Griffiths (Third edition) Prentice Hall.

Grading: There will be two Midterms and a Final. The midterms carry 20 percent each, the final carries 35 percent, and the homework/quizzes carry 25 percent.


Office hours: The hour after class will be office hours in general; for other times, make an appointmemt with the instructor (send an e-mail to mathur.16@osu.edu)



Assignment 1

Soutions to Assignment 1

Class exercise 1

Soutions to Assignment 2

Assignment 2

Assignment 3

Note: (1) The first midterm will be on TWO days, Wed Feb 8 and Thursday Feb 9. It will be open book, but you should have your own copy of Griffiths since you cannot share during the exam, or talk to your colleagues. You can also have a page of notes with a summary of formulae and comments on how to use them. The questions will be of the level that you get for the homeworks. The material is all of chapter 5 and whatever we cover till then from chapter 6.

(2) On Monday Feb 6 there will be a practice exam question handed out in class (not graded) where you can talk to your colleagues etc just like in the normal class exercises.

(3) There will be no class Friday Feb 10.

(4) I would like to hold a review session on Tuesday Jan 31 and again on Thursday Feb 2, with times to be determined by consultation with the class. The first review session will discuss chapter 5, and the second will discuss chapter 6.

(5) The first review session will be on Tue Jan 31 at 10.30 am in the PRM M2035.


Here are some notes that may be of assistance at various points in the course:

Vector fields

The electric field

Notes on relativistic electrodynamics (Chapter 12)