Syllabus

Download a full course syllabus here.

Course Description

The idea of a field, a physical entity that permeates all of space, completely changed physics. It is the foundation for making physics local—even far separated objects like charges can be in direct touch with an electric or magnetic field that spreads between them. The field can be a propagator of causes from one charge to another, thus the field undergirds causality. Fields can naturally support the waves generated by moving charges. Much of modern physics has flowed out of the notion of a field.

Electromagnetism was discovered first amongst the physical field theories. Its remarkable unification of the effects of electricity and of magnetism is a crowning achievement in physics and serves as motivation and model for all our subsequent efforts to unify. Through our study of electromagnetism we will develop increasingly sophisticated mathematical and theoretical techniques that will serve you well in all of your physics studies. In particular, after this course you will be in a better position to understand modern approaches to particle physics and general relativity.