Undergraduate Course: Tensors and Fields (PHYS10016)
This course will be closed from 31 July 2012
Course Outline
| School | School of Physics and Astronomy |
College | College of Science and Engineering |
| Course type | Standard |
Availability | Available to all students |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Credits | 10 |
| Home subject area | Undergraduate (School of Physics and Astronomy) |
Other subject area | None |
| Course website |
http://www2.ph.ed.ac.uk/~rhorsley/ |
Taught in Gaelic? | No |
| Course description | PLEASE NOTE - THIS COURSE IS NOT RUNNING IN 2011/12
This course provides an introduction to tensors and their uses in physics. Topics covered include: vectors, bases, determinants and the index notation; the general theory of Cartesian tensors; rotation and reflection tensors; various applications including elasticity theory - stress and strain tensors; orthogonal curvilinear coordinates, grad, div and curl; the divergence and Stokes' theorem, Laplacians; delta functions; applications to electromagnetism: scalar potential theory, e.g. Gauss's Law, dipoles, multipole expansions, solutions of Laplace's & Poisson's equations. |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| Displayed in Visiting Students Prospectus? | Yes |
Course Delivery Information
|
| Delivery period: 2011/12 Semester 1, Available to all students (SV1)
|
WebCT enabled: No |
Quota: 0 |
| Location |
Activity |
Description |
Weeks |
Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
| No Classes have been defined for this Course |
| First Class |
First class information not currently available |
| Additional information |
Workshop/tutorial sessions, as arranged. |
| No Exam Information |
|
| Delivery period: 2011/12 Semester 1, Part-year visiting students only (VV1)
|
WebCT enabled: No |
Quota: 0 |
| Location |
Activity |
Description |
Weeks |
Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
| No Classes have been defined for this Course |
| First Class |
First class information not currently available |
| Additional information |
Workshop/tutorial sessions, as arranged. |
| No Exam Information |
Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this course it is intended that a student will be able to:
1)be confident with the index notation and the Einstein summation convention
2)have a good working knowledge of matrices and determinants and be able to derive vector identities
3)understand the meaning and significance of tensors and their application to simple physical situations
4)understand and manipulate various orthogonal curvilinear co-ordinates
5)be familiar with the divergence and Stokes' theorem
6)appreciate the Dirac delta function
7)understand the meaning of a field and potential
8)apply the methods of solution of potential theory to various situations (mainly electrostatic)
9)to be able to apply what has been learnt in the course to solving new problems |
Assessment Information
Degree Examination, 100%
Visiting Student Variant Assessment
Degree Examination, 100% |
Special Arrangements
| None |
Additional Information
| Academic description |
Not entered |
| Syllabus |
* Vectors, matrices, determinants, the delta and epsilon symbols
* Rotations of bases, reflections, passive and active transformations
* Definition and transformation properties of Cartesian tensors, quotient theorem, pseudotensors, isotropic tensors
* Taylor's theorem: the one- and three-dimensional cases
* Some examples of tensors:
* conductivity tensor
* moment of inertia tensor and diagonalisation of rank-2 tensors
* continuum mechanics, the strain and stress tensors,
* Hooke's Law for isotropic media
* fluid mechanics, the Navier--Stokes equation
* Orthogonal curvilinear co-ordinates, cylindrical and polar co-ordinates, grad, div and curl, the divergence and Stokes' theorem
* The Dirac delta function
* Electrostatic fields, electrostatic Maxwell equations, conservative fields, the electric dipole, the multipole expansion, conductors, boundary conditions
* Potential theory, uniqueness of solution and some methods of solution such as images, separation of variables and Green's functions
|
| Transferable skills |
Not entered |
| Reading list |
Not entered |
| Study Abroad |
Not entered |
| Study Pattern |
Not entered |
| Keywords | TandF |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Roger Horsley
Tel: (0131 6)50 6481
Email: |
Course secretary | Miss Laura Gonzalez-Rienda
Tel: (0131 6)51 7067
Email: |
|
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