Electrostatics: experimental results; the electric charge and its characteristics; the electrometer; Bohr's model of the atom; quantization and conservation of the charge; Coulomb's law; operational definition of the Coulomb; stability of a system of charges; energy of a system of charges; definition of the electric field; the principle of superposition; the electrostatic potential; the electric dipole; flux of a vector field; Gauss's law; the equations for electrostatics. Field and potential for various distributions of charge. Electrostatics and conductors: Capacity and associated energy; capacitors in series and parallel. The electric field in matter: Experimental aspects; molecular polarization; polar and non-polar dielectrics; polarization density vector; surface and volumetric polarization charge density; electric displacement field vector; divergence of the electric displacement vector; electric susceptibility and dielectric constant; electric potential in dielectric media; continuity conditions of the electric and electric displacement vectors at the interface of two isotropic and homogeneous dielectrics; force on a dielectric in a capacitor; dielectric strength. Electric current: Electromotive force; current density and current intensity; principle of conservation of electric charge; Ohm's laws; Joule's law; resistances in series and parallel. Kirchhoff's laws. Magnetostatics:
The sources of the magnetic field and experimental facts; the law
of Biot-Savart; magnetic dipole of a current loop; line integrals
on closed loops and Ampere's Law; integral and differential forms
for the equations of magnetostatics. Electromagnetic induction: The Lorentz force; Faraday's law of induction and Lenz's law; rotor of the electric field; inductance and associated energy. Alternating
currents. RLC circuit. Magnetic
field in matter: Orbital and spin magnetic moments in atoms;
diamagnetism and paramagnetism; magnetization intensity; surface
and volumetric magnetization currents; Electromagnetism.
Stationary and time-dependent Maxwell's equations. Electromagnetic
waves. Poynting's vector. Potentials of the electromagnetic field. |
- Instructor: Leonardo Colletti