Welcome to Physics 441!
Fall 2017
General Information
Instructor: John S. Colton
Email: john_colton@byu.edu
Office: N335 ESC
Office hours in room N337:
When HW is due on a Wednesday: T 2-4 pm
When HW is due on a Friday: Th 1-2 and 4-5 pm
When HW is due on a Monday: the previous Friday, 1-3 pm
Thanksgiving week (HW due Tues Nov 21, which is Friday instruction): undecided, maybe we'll take a class vote
TA/TA office hours: Annie Laughlin, emilylaughlina@gmail.com.
Office hours in room N337:
Most weeks: T 12 pm - 2 pm; Th 11 am - 1 pm.
Special cases due to some HWs being due on Monday (i.e. Oct 23, Oct 30, Nov 6):
Fri Oct 20 11-12
Mon Oct 23 11-12; Tues Oct 24 12-1; Th Oct 26 11-12; Fri Oct 27 11-12
Mon Oct 30 11-12; Tues Oct 31 12-1; Th Nov 2 11-12; Fri Nov 3 11-12
Mon Nov 6 11-12; Tues Nov 7 12-1; Th Nov 9 11-1
Special case due to Thanksgiving week HW being due on Tuesday Nov 21 (which is Friday instruction)
Mon Nov 20: 1-3
Quick Links
The following links are explained more below.
- Syllabus: syllabus - 441 - fall 2017.pdf (note the dates are off after Oct 20 due to the cancelled class)
- HW & Grades: //max.byu.edu/20175-phscs441
Syllabus
- I will bring hardcopies of the syllabus to the first day of class. If you would like to download a pdf version of the syllabus, here is a pdf file: syllabus - 441 - fall 2017.pdf (note the dates are off after Oct 20 due to the cancelled class)
Homework and Grades
- I will use the Physics Department's "Max" system to assign homework and keep track of grades: //max.byu.edu, and here's a direct link to this particular class: //max.byu.edu/20175-phscs441
Handouts
Here are handouts for/from various class periods.
- lecture 1 - What you should already know about electric field and potential - Phys 441.pdf - Things you should have learned in Phys 220
- lecture 13 - Parallel Equations for the Electric and Magnetic Fields.pdf - List of most of the important equations in Phys 441, organized according to electric and magnetic field versions of similar equations
- lecture 14 - laplace.xlsx - La Place equation solved by relaxation spreadsheet
- lecture 15 - potential and field from image problem.nb; lecture 15 - charge density from image problem.nb - Mathematica notebooks for the canonical image problem
- lecture 16 - orthogonality of sine functions.nb - Mathematica notebook demonstrating the orthogonality of sine functions
- lecture 16 - separation of variables - 2D semi-infinite.nb - Mathematica notebook for separation of variables 2D semi-infinite problem
- lecture 16 - separation of variables - 3D cube.nb - Mathematica notebook for separation of variables 3D cube problem
- lecture 17 - legendre polynomials.pdf - summary of information about the Legendre polynomials
- lecture 19 - worked SOV problem given sigma on a shell.pdf - worked separation of variables problem discussed very quickly in class
- lecture 19 - field lines of a pure electric dipole.nb - Mathematica notebook to plot the field lines of a pure electric dipole, namely E = C/r3 (2 cos(theta) r-hat + sin(theta) theta-hat)
- lecture 24 - laplace with dielectric.xls - relaxation spreadsheet that incorporates some dielectric material in middle
- lecture 27 - particle motion with Lorentz force.nb (removed) - Mathematica notebook to calculate particle trajectories using the Lorentz force equation
- lecture 32 - field of magnetized cylinder - z axis.nb - Mathematica notebook to plot the magnetic field from a magnetized cylinder
- lecture 39 - new advanced circuits topics 1.pdf - review handout to be read prior to lecture 39
- lecture 40 - new advanced circuits topics 2.pdf - handout with some possibly new topics involving AC circuits
- lecture 41 - convolution demonstration.nb - Mathematica notebook to demonstrate what a convolution is
Past Exams
Here are actual exams from past semesters. If you are using these to study, I highly recommend you work out the exams on your own BEFORE looking at the solutions. Also note that the coverage from year to year is not necessarily consistent, both in terms of overall material covered and material covered for each exam. In particular in Fall 2016 we covered more circuits than I plan to cover this semester, and the circuits topics were part of Exam 3. There may be other differences.
- Exam 1
- Exam 2
- Exam 3 - See note above about the difference in material from previous semesters
- Final Exam
Current Topics in Physics
- Physics Central
- Physical Review Focus
- Physics News Update