Homepage of Electricity and Magnetism 2 and Statistical Thermodynamics (MP232)

Electricity and Magnetism 2 and Statistical Thermodynamics (MP232) (Spring 2010)

Any exercises and solutions that were handed out at the tutorial will also be made vailable through the weekly schedule.
Two important announcements about the exam are below
The review tutorial for this course will take place on Tuesday May 11 at 15:00, in room 61, opposite the swimming pool, between numbers 20 and 21 on this map of the south campus

Instructor

Joost Slingerland
Office: Department of Mathematical Physics, Room 1.7D, Science Building (number 17 on this Map of the North Campus)
e-mail: joost-at-thphys-dot-nuim-dot-ie

Class meets

Lectures:
Tuesday 11:05-11:55 in Hall D in the in Arts Building (number 18 on this Map of the North Campus)
Thursday, 12:05-12:55 in JH6, which is lecture hall 6 in the John Hume building (number 15 on this Map of the North Campus)
Tutorials:
Time and Place: Tuesday, 15:05 in AX-1 in the Auxilia Building. (The Auxilia Building is number 10 on this Map of the North Campus)
The review tutorial will take place on Tuesday May 11 at 15:00, in room 61, opposite the swimming pool, between numbers 20 and 21 on this Map of the South Campus
Tutor:
Glen Burella
Office: Department of Mathematical Physics, Room 1.1, Science Building (number 17 on this Map of the North Campus)
e-mail: glen-dot-burella-at-nuim-dot-ie

Course content

We will roughly cover the module content posted on the math department's webpage. A more accurate Weekly Schedule will appear gradually as the course evolves.

Text

There will be significant overlap with two sets of lecture notes by Charles Nash, one on electromagnetism and one on statistical mechanics.
Some books you may want to have a look at are:

Electrodynamics

Introduction to Electrodynamics,3rd ed., by David J. Griffiths, published by Addison Wesley /Prentice Hall, 1999.
I find this a very clear book and recommend it for studying things in more depth than you can get from the lecture notes and for the problems!
Electromagnetism by I.S. Grant and W.R Philips, currently 2nd edition (1991), published by Wiley
This book was recommended before and is probably a good alternative to Griffiths book, with similar level of difficulty and a different style.
Classical Electrodynamics by John David Jackson, currently 3rd edition, published by Wiley.
This is the "bible" of classical electrodynamics. It is not a very suitable book for a first course in electrodynamics, but if you really want to dig into something this is a good place to start.

Statistical Thermodynamics

An Introduction to Thermal Physics by Daniel V. Schroeder, published by Addison Wesley (1999)
I am using this book for my course in Statistical Mechanics and finding it very useful - clear and it does not require much mathematical or even physical background knowledge.
Fundamentals of Statistical and Thermal Physics by Frederick Reif, published by McGraw-Hill
This book is a classic. It starts at a higher level, but it has good and not especially difficult coverage of the material we will go through in this course.

Exam and Continuous Assessment

The exam is on May 17, at 9:30am in the SMALL SPORTS HALL (number 20 on this Map of the North Campus)

This is a one and a half hour written examination. It counts for 80% of the mark. Continuous Assessment (that is, hand-in exercises), make up the remaining 20%.

Announcements on the exam:

1. The exam will take the same form as in previous years, but there is one new rule:
As before, you can select two out of four questions, but unlike previous years, the exam is now in two parts, one part on electromagnetism and one part on statistical thermodynamics. Each part contains two questions and you have to select one question from each part.
2. You are expected to know Maxwell's equations. They will be assumed known in the exam and will not be given.

Homework

There will be a number of assignments to hand in (the frequency will be about one per two weeks). These will be marked and the results will count for 20% of the final mark.

The deadline for handing in homework is the start of the Tuesday lecture in the week following the week in which the homework was assigned. Late homework will not be accepted.

Homework can be handed in at the start of class on Tuesday, or before that, directly to me (in my office) or it can be left in my pigeon hole in the mathematical physics department, Rm 1.11 (Monica Harte's office). Please make sure your homework shows some cohesion as well as your name and student number. I encourage you to work on the homework in small groups; it is important to learn to communicate about the subject. However, please make sure you do fully understand the solutions to the problems and please write them up from scratch, in your own words. For this week's homework, see the Weekly Schedule

Old exam papers

Some exam papers from previous years can be found here.

Feedback

If you have questions, comments or suggestions for the lectures and the webpage (maybe you don't like green :)), then please send me an email. I can't promise to make everybody happy, but I will try.