Physics 142 Course Information

General Physics: Electricity and Magnetism (Honors)

Instructor: Ed Blucher
                  HEP 316
                  702-7486
                  e-blucher@uchicago.edu

Office hours: to be announced. In addition to scheduled office hours, you are welcome to stop by at other times during the week -- please phone first to be sure that I am in the office. To reach my office, enter the Research Institute building through 5620 S. Ellis Ave.  Go down the stairs and follow the red dots to the basement of the HEP building.  Take the elevator to the 3rd floor.

Secretary: Vicki Stone, HEP 304, 702-7480

Course Coordinator: Stuart Gazes, KPTC 205, 702-7760

Lab Instructor: Joe O'Gallagher, 702-7007

Textbooks: Electricity and Magnetism, Purcell; div, grad, curl, and all that, Schey.

Course Web Page:  http://hep.uchicago.edu/~blucher/p142.html


The course will consist of lectures, discussion sessions, and laboratories. The lectures will be held Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 9:30-10:20 in KPTC 120. Discussion sessions will be held every Tuesday from 4:30 - 5:20 beginning on January 13.

Seven laboratory exercises are required for this course. The schedule will be posted on the Physics 142 bulletin board in KPTC 101. You will need a copy of the laboratory manual for Physics 142, which is available at the bookstore, as well as a bound notebook (with duplicate sheets) for recording your work in the lab.

Please check the course bulletin board to confirm your lab section assignment. If your name is missing or highlighted, you should go to Instructional Services (KPTC 205) as soon as possible to check your lab assignment. All changes in either course registration or lab section must be made through the instructional services office. If you anticipate missing a lab at any time during the quarter, contact Charlotte Coles (2-7019) ASAP to see if other arrangements can be made.

Homework problems will be assigned each Wednesday and are due at the beginning of class on the following Wednesday. Homework solutions will be posted after class on Wednesdays, so late homework cannot be accepted.
 
 

The course grade will be based on your performance on exams, homework, and labs. The relative weights of these items will be approximately:

Final Exam (2 hours)     35%
Midterm                        20%
Homework                    25%
Labs                              20%
 
 

Schedule



 
 
 
 

Week Topic Chapters

(in Purcell)

Lab
1 Coulomb's Law, Gauss's Law 1  
2 Electric potential, div, theorem 2  
3 Conductors, capacitance 3 I. Electric Field Mapping
4 DC Circuits 4 II. Coulomb's Law
5 Moving charges, magnetic fields 5,6 III. Oscilloscope, Capacitance
6 Induction 7 IV. e/m of electron
7 AC Circuits 8 V. Faraday's Law
8 Maxwell's Equations, EM waves 9 VI. Inductance, RC, and RL Circuits
9 Electric fields in matter 9,10 VII. RLC Circuits, resonance
10 Magnetic fields in matter, review 11  


 

E. Blucher (e-blucher@uchicago.edu)