Undergraduate Course: Classical Electrodynamics (PHYS11045)
Course Outline
| School | School of Physics and Astronomy | 
College | College of Science and Engineering | 
 
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Year 4 Undergraduate) | 
Availability | Available to all students | 
 
| SCQF Credits | 10 | 
ECTS Credits | 5 | 
 
 
| Summary | A course on the Maxwell equations, their Lorentz invariance, covariant formulation, and gauge invariance. Applications included classical radiation from time dependent charges and currents, and in particular  accelerating charges. | 
 
| Course description | 
    
    *	Relativistic electrodynamics: Maxwell's equations, charge, energy and momentum conservation, the electromagnetic potentials, electromagnetic radiation and its generation, electric and magnetic dipole radiation. 
 
*	Action principles: for point particles, scalar fields, vector fields, charge and energy-momentum conservation. 
 
*	Accelerating charges: covariant Green's functions, the Lienard-Wiechert potential, their associated fields, synchotron radiation, Larmor formula. 
 
    
    
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Information for Visiting Students 
| Pre-requisites | Knowledge of relativity and background in electromagnetism up to Maxwell's equations is essential. | 
 
		| High Demand Course? | 
		Yes | 
     
 
Course Delivery Information
 |  
| Academic year 2015/16, Available to all students (SV1) 
  
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Quota:  None | 
 
| Course Start | 
Semester 2 | 
 
Timetable  | 
	
Timetable | 
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) | 
 
 Total Hours:
100
(
 Lecture Hours 22,
 Supervised Practical/Workshop/Studio Hours 11,
 Summative Assessment Hours 2,
 Revision Session Hours 2,
 Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
61 )
 | 
 
| Assessment (Further Info) | 
 
  Written Exam
100 %,
Coursework
0 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
 | 
 
 
| Additional Information (Assessment) | 
Degree Examination, 100% | 
 
| Feedback | 
Feedback will be provided by one to one meetings within workshops and pre-exam revision sessions. 
 | 
 
| No Exam Information | 
 
Learning Outcomes 
    On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
    
        - Understand the relativistic formulation of Maxwell's equations.
 - Use the Lorentz transformation to transform fields and sources from one inertial frame to another.
 - Appreciate the causal structure of electrodynamics.
 - Derive detailed expressions for the nature of electromagnetic power emitted by various sources.
 - Apply Maxwell's equations to solve unseen problems in classical electrodynamics.
 
     
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Reading List 
J.D. Jackson, "Classical Electrodynamics" 
D.J. Griffiths, "Introduction to Electrodynamics" 
L.D. Landau & E.M. Lifschitz, "The Classical Theory of Fields" |   
 
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills | 
Not entered | 
 
| Additional Class Delivery Information | 
Workshop/tutorial sessions, as arranged. | 
 
| Keywords | CED | 
 
 
Contacts 
| Course organiser | Prof Donal O'Connell 
Tel:  
Email:  | 
Course secretary |  Yuhua Lei 
Tel: (0131 6) 517067 
Email:  | 
   
 
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