Electricity and Magnetism I (PHYS*2330)

Code and section: PHYS*2330*01

Term: Fall 2020

Instructor: Joanne O'Meara

Details

Course Information

Instruction

Instructor:  Joanne O’Meara
email: omeara@uoguelph.ca

Teaching Assistant: Michael Lahaye        
email: mlahaye@uoguelph.ca
    

Lectures 

Tuesday, Thursday    
8:30 to 9:50 am        
Zoom links are provided through Courselink

Tutorials

Wednesdays
7:00 to 8:50 pm
Zoom links are provided through Courselink    

The Purpose of this Course

The principal aim of this course is to continue building the foundation of classical physics that students need in their progress toward the frontier of modern physics research.  The second aim of this course is to strengthen the problem-solving skills of students, which will be invaluable regardless of their future career path.  Topics include vector calculus, electric fields, potential, electric work and energy, Gauss's Law, Poisson's and Laplace's equations, capacitors, D.C. circuits and dielectric materials. 

Course Materials

Required Materials

Introduction to Electrodynamics, 4th Edition, D. J. Griffiths

Highly Recommended

University Physics by H.D. Young and R. A. Freedman – your text from IPS*1500/1510

Evaluation

Assessment Weight
Reading Quizzes (~20)  15%
Weekly Assignments (~10)   40%
Final Assessment   45%

Given the current situation with COVID19, this will be a semester like no other. We will be working entirely online, which is a new experience for us all. My plan is to have small, frequent assessments to keep us all on track and communicating, as this will be more challenging without face-to-face interactions. I will not be requiring you to do a midterm or final exam in a proctored fashion. Instead, I am adapting my typical assessment approach to something more appropriate to our current reality. My guiding principles throughout this unusual semester are:

  1. Stay connected
  2. Be flexible
  3. Be kind

The reading quizzes will be connected to each lecture and will consist of ~5 questions each on Courselink. These quizzes are designed to confirm that you did indeed read the notes prepared for you in advance. As such, they are merely checking that you have completed the reading, not necessarily that you fully understood the reading. The weekly assignments will be a mix of mathematical problem solving, data analysis, and computational problem solving: each one will be due on the Monday morning at the beginning of the following week of classes.

(Not) Working With Other Students

All work submitted for grading in this course must be each individual student's own work.  While students are encouraged to share thoughts and ideas, it is not acceptable to share assignment solutions.  The reading quizzes and assignments are not group projects unless explicitly stated otherwise by the instructor.


Help

The tutorial time (Wednesday 7 to 8:50 pm) will be used as an open opportunity to ask questions on the materials – lecture notes/problems, reading quizzes, assignments, etc. If you would like help from either the instructor or teaching assistant at another time, please contact by email to arrange. Short questions may be manageable in our Zoom sessions just before we begin lectures on Tuesdays and Thursdays as well.


Schedule for the Semester

Week Dates Material Covered in Lecture Tutorials/Assignments
1 Sept 7 – 11  Introduction No tutorial or assignment
2 Sept 14 – 18 Coulomb’s law, work done by electric force, electric potential energy Tutorials begin – Wed Sept 16
Sept 21 – 25 Electric potential energy, line integrals, gradients Assn #1 due (Mon Sept 21)
Tutorial – Wed Sept 23
4 Sept 28 – Oct 2 Coordinate systems, electric field calculations (point charges)  Assn #2 due (Mon Sept 28)
Tutorial – Wed Sept 30
5 Oct 5 – 9 Electric field calculations (charge distributions), electric potential, calculations Assn #3 due (Mon Oct 5)
Tutorial – Wed Oct 7
6 Oct 12 – 16
No class on Tuesday Oct 13
Relationship between electric field and electric potential, effect of electric field on charges Tutorial – Wed Oct 14
7 Oct 19 – 23 Electric dipoles, force and torque on dipoles in different fields Assn #4 due (Mon Oct 19)
Tutorial – Wed Oct 21
8 Oct 26 – 30 flux, introduction to Gauss’s law (integral form)  Assn #5 due (Mon Oct 26)
Tutorial – Wed Oct 28
9 Nov 2 – 6 Gauss’s law, applications Assn #6 due (Mon Nov 2)
Tutorial – Wed Nov 4
10 Nov 9 – 13 divergence, curl Assn #7 due (Mon Nov 9)
Tutorial – Wed Nov 11
11 Nov 16 – 20 Laplace’s equation, Poisson’s equation, solving Laplace in 1D and 2D Assn #8 due (Mon Nov 16)
Tutorial – Wed Nov 18
12 Nov 23 – 27 capacitance, polarization Assn #9 due (Mon Nov 23)
Tutorial – Wed Nov 25
13 Nov 30 – Dec 4 Review Assn #10 due (Mon Nov 30)
No tutorial
    Final Assessment Due Monday December 14th N/A

           
The information in the table above is provided as a rough guide in terms of the schedule of material covered during the term.  Regular attendance at lectures and tutorials is the best way to ensure that you are up to date on the relevant course material.  The indicated weeks in which assignments will be due are also tentative.  Assignments will be posted on the course website, along with the associated due dates.  Check Courselink regularly to stay informed. 

Course Statements

Academic Misconduct 

The University of Guelph is committed to upholding the highest standards of academic integrity and it is the responsibility of all members of the University community, faculty, staff, and students to be aware of what constitutes academic misconduct and to do as much as possible to prevent academic offences from occurring. 

University of Guelph students have the responsibility of abiding by the University's policy on academic misconduct regardless of their location of study; faculty, staff and students have the responsibility of supporting an environment that discourages misconduct. Students need to remain aware that instructors have access to and the right to use electronic and other means of detection. 
Please note: whether or not a student intended to commit academic misconduct is not relevant for a finding of guilt. Hurried or careless submission of assignments does not excuse students from responsibility for verifying the academic integrity of their work before submitting it. Students who are in any doubt as to whether an action on their part could be construed as an academic offence should consult with a faculty member or faculty advisor. 
The Academic Misconduct Policy is detailed in the Undergraduate Calendar. 
A helpful resource in understanding academic misconduct and plagiarism can be found at: plagiarism.org 

Turnitin 

In this course, your instructor will use Turnitin, integrated with the CourseLink Dropbox tool, to detect possible plagiarism, unauthorized collaboration or copying as part of the ongoing efforts to maintain academic integrity at the University of Guelph.All submitted assignments will be included as source documents in the Turnitin.com reference database solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of such papers. Use of the Turnitin.com service is subject to the Usage Policy posted on the Turnitin.com site. 

A major benefit of using Turnitin is that students will be able to educate and empower themselves in preventing academic misconduct. In this course, you may screen your own assignments through Turnitin as many times as you wish before the due date. You will be able to see and print reports that show you exactly where you have properly and improperly referenced the outside sources and materials in your assignment. 

Copyright Protections of Intellectual Property

Presentations that are made in relation to course work—including lectures and tutorials —cannot be recorded or copied without the permission of the presenter, whether the instructor, a classmate or guest lecturer. Material recorded with permission is restricted to use for that course unless further permission is granted. 

Classroom teaching and learning activities, including lectures, discussions, presentations, etc., by both instructors and students, are copyright protected and remain the intellectual property of their respective author(s). All course materials, including PowerPoint presentations, outlines, lecture notes, reading quizzes, assignments, assessments and other materials, are also protected by copyright and remain the intellectual property of their respective author(s).
Students registered in the course may take notes and make copies of course materials for their own educational use only. Students are not permitted to reproduce or distribute lecture notes and course materials publicly for commercial or non-commercial purposes without express written consent from the copyright holder(s).

Course Assessment

The Department of Physics requires student assessment of all courses taught by the Department. These assessments provide essential feedback to faculty on their teaching by identifying both strengths and possible areas of improvement. In addition, annual student assessment of teaching provides part of the information used by the Department Tenure and Promotion Committee in evaluating the faculty member's contribution in the area of teaching.

The Department's teaching evaluation questionnaire invites student response both through numerically quantifiable data and written student comments. In conformity with University of Guelph Faculty Policy, the Department Tenure and Promotions Committee only considers comments signed by students (choosing "I agree" in question 14). Your instructor will see all signed and unsigned comments after final grades are submitted. Written student comments may also be used in support of a nomination for internal and external teaching awards.

NOTE: No information will be passed on to the instructor until after the final grades have been submitted.

University Statements

COVID-19 Disclaimer

Please note that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic may necessitate a revision of the format of course offerings and academic schedules. Any such changes will be announced via CourseLink and/or class email. All University-wide decisions will be posted on the COVID-19 website and circulated by email.  

Illness
The University will not require verification of illness (doctor's notes) for the fall 2020 or winter 2021 semesters. 

Email Communication

As per university regulations, all students are required to check their e-mail account regularly: e-mail is the official route of communication between the University and its students.

When You Cannot Meet a Course Requirement

When you find yourself unable to meet an in-course requirement because of illness or compassionate reasons please advise the course instructor (or designated person, such as a teaching assistant) in writing, with your name, id#, and e-mail contact. The grounds for Academic Consideration are detailed in the Undergraduate Calendar.  

Drop Date

Students will have until the last day of classes to drop courses without academic penalty. The deadline to drop two-semester courses will be the last day of classes in the second semester. This applies to all students (undergraduate, graduate and diploma) except for Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and Associate Diploma in Veterinary Technology (conventional and alternative delivery) students. The regulations and procedures for course registration are available in their respective Academic Calendars. Undergraduate Calendar 

Copies of Out-of-class Assignments

Keep paper and/or other reliable back-up copies of all out-of-class assignments: you may be asked to resubmit work at any time.

Accessibility

The University promotes the full participation of students who experience disabilities in their academic programs. To that end, the provision of academic accommodation is a shared responsibility between the University and the student. When accommodations are needed, the student is required to first register with Student Accessibility Services (SAS). Documentation to substantiate the existence of a disability is required; however, interim accommodations may be possible while that process is underway. Accommodations are available for both permanent and temporary disabilities. It should be noted that common illnesses such as a cold or the flu do not constitute a disability. Use of the SAS Exam Centre requires students to book their exams at least 7 days in advance and not later than the 40th Class Day.

Academic Integrity

The University of Guelph is committed to upholding the highest standards of academic integrity, and it is the responsibility of all members of the University community-faculty, staff, and students-to be aware of what constitutes academic misconduct and to do as much as possible to prevent academic offences from occurring. University of Guelph students have the responsibility of abiding by the University's policy on academic misconduct regardless of their location of study; faculty, staff, and students have the responsibility of supporting an environment that encourages academic integrity. Students need to remain aware that instructors have access to and the right to use electronic and other means of detection. Please note: Whether or not a student intended to commit academic misconduct is not relevant for a finding of guilt. Hurried or careless submission of assignments does not excuse students from responsibility for verifying the academic integrity of their work before submitting it. Students who are in any doubt as to whether an action on their part could be construed as an academic offence should consult with a faculty member or faculty advisor. Undergraduate Calendar

Recording of Materials

Presentations that are made in relation to course work - including lectures - cannot be recorded or copied without the permission of the presenter, whether the instructor, a student, or guest lecturer. Material recorded with permission is restricted to use for that course unless further permission is granted.

Resources

The Academic Calendars are the source of information about the University of Guelph’s procedures, policies, and regulations that apply to undergraduate, graduate, and diploma programs. Undergraduate Calendar