Home Page for Physics 3310

Physics 3310, Electromagnetism

Instructor: Steven Pollock

Tesla

Nikola Tesla during a quite moment in his laboratory in Colorado Springs (circa 1900). Tesla's goal was to distribute electrical power globally by using large transformers (Tesla coils) to drive electrical oscillations in the Earth's atmosphere.

Welcome to Physics 3310, Principles of Electricity and Magnetism 1.

Look at the syllabus and start reviewing vector calculus in Chapter 1.1-1.3 of the text (Introduction to Electrodynamics 3rd Ed., by David J. Griffiths).
We'll start the semester off in Chapter 2 (and come back to the math in Ch 1 as needed.)

Special notes:

Bring an iClicker to class every day - we'll make good use of them.
You have TWO online assigments due noon (an hour before class starts) Wed of the first week(!) They're not graded for correctness, ONLY for participation. Do the first of them (the "diagnostic") now!

The password for these (and all online activities this term) is "3310" (without any quotes)
#1: Diagnostic: This is E&M material you might know from Phys 1120 (or maybe not, that's partly what it's for, to help me find out) Budget half an hour, do it in one sitting, and PLEASE DON'T USE ANY TEXTS, NOTES, or any other resources. We want to see what you can do on your own, without help. If you feel like you could do something if you could just flip open a book - look at it later, but not while taking the pretest! Thanks for participating.

#2: First of our weekly preflights. This is NEW material, so do the assigned reading first. Do the preflight on your own, but you can (and should) use your textbook, that's the point of preflights!
Reading: Begin with Ch 2 the first week of class. (Start with 2.1 and 2.2) Also read Griffiths "Advertisement" p. xi-xv, it's good! (REVIEW Chapters 1.1-1.3 if you don't know it well) In the future, see the calendar, reading and assignments link (always available on the upper left) for reading assignments.
Written Homework: Homework is normally due Wed (start of class), but for this first week, HW 1 is due Friday. In the future, see the calendar, reading and assignments link (always available on the upper left) to find upcoming homework.
OFFICE HOURS THIS WEEK: Tues 4-5. These may change. We'll hold them in our classroom (or I'll put a note up if we need to go somewhere else)
We have a D2L (learn.colorado.edu) site for this course - I'll post all solutions there. There's also a discussion forum, so you can help each other online on homeworks and preflights.

I welcome your comments on the class and this website. Send them to steven.pollock at colorado.edu