| Date | Notes |
| W 8/23 | Discussed course policies, grading, etc. |
| F 8/25 | Assessment test. Started electrostatics-Coulomb's law, SI units. |
| M 8/28 | Definition of the electric field. Properties of the Dirac delta function. Electric field of a charged rod. |
| W 8/30 | Finished electric field of a charged rod. Gauss's Law in integral and differential form. Comments on applications of Gauss's Law in integral form. |
| F 9/1 | Electrostatic potential. Lines of force and equipotential surfaces. Fields and potentials for simple charge distributions-point charge, dipole, line charge, sheet charge. Problem Set 1 due. |
| M 9/4 | Labor Day (no class) |
| W 9/6 | Returned HW1. Boundary conditions on the electric field. Surface distributions of charge and dipoles. Review of the properties of conductors. Introduction to Poisson's and Laplace's equations. |
| F 9/8 | Electrostatic energy. Green's first identity, uniqueness of solutons to Poisson's equation. Green's second identity. Problem Set 2 due. |
| M 9/11 | Formal solution of Poisson's equation. Green's function for Dirichlet boundary conditions. Started method of images-point charge in front of a grounded conducting plane. |
| W 9/13 | Finished method of images for the infinite conducting sheet. Discussed the method of images for the conducting sphere. |
| F 9/15 | Finished images for the sphere. Green's function for the sphere. Started separation of variables for rectangular coordinates. Problem Set 3 due. |
| M 9/18 | Finished two-dimensional ``trough'' example. Summation of a series. Separation of variables in three dimensions-box with sides at different potentials. |
| W 9/20 | Separation of variables in polar coordinates. Solved problem of the grounded conducting cylinder in a uniform electric field. Started Fourier series. |
| F 9/22 | Complex Fourier series. Fourier transforms with examples. Problem Set 4 due. |
| M 9/25 | Orthogonal functions, completeness. Started discussing complex variable methods. Analytic functions. |
| W 9/27 | Cauchy-Riemann equations. Simple applications of complex variable methods to electrostatics. |
| F 9/29 | First hour exam |
| M 10/2 | Reviewed first exam. More applications of complex variables---the grounded semi-infinite conducting sheet. |
| W 10/4 | Complex variable methods-charged conducting strip. Started separation of variables in spherical coordinates. |
| F 10/6 | Solution of the azimuthal and radial equations. Legendre's equation. Series solution of Legendre's equation. Problem Set 5 due. |
| M 10/9 | Properties of Legendre polynomials. Solution of electrostatics problems with azimuthal symmetry. |
| W 10/11 | More examples with azimuthal symmetry. Problems without azimuthal symmetry-associated Legendre functions. |
| F 10/13 | Spherical harmonics and some of their properties. Example-potential prescribed on a sphere. Addition theorem. Problem Set 6 due. |
| M 10/16 | Separation of variables in cylindrical coordinates. Bessel's equation and Bessel functions. Some properties of Bessel functions. |
| W 10/18 | More properties of Bessel functions. Example: potential inside a hollow cylinder. |
| F 10/20 | Eigenfunction expansion for Green's functions. Problem Set 7 due. |
| M 10/23 | Spherical multipole expansion. Cartesian multipoles. Quadrupole moment tensor. |
| W 10/25 | More on multipoles. Expansion of the energy in multipoles. Started electrostatics in dielectric (``ponderable'') media. |
| F 10/27 | Equations of electrostatics in dielectric media. Boundary conditions. Started discussing the point charge in front of an interface between two dielectrics. |
| M 10/30 | Boundary value problems in dielectrics. Point charge in front of a planar dielectric interface. Dielectric sphere in a uniform electric field. Problem Set 8 due. |
| W 11/1 | Electrostatic energy in dielectrics. Dipole-dipole interaction. Induced dipole moments and van der Waals interaction. |
| F 11/3 | Second hour exam |
| M 11/6 | Review of exam. Started discussion of microscopic models of dielectrics. |
| W 11/8 | Clausius-Mosotti relation. Current density. Equation of continuity. Ohm's law for conductors. |
| F 11/10 | Veteran's Day (no class). Problem Set 9 due. |
| M 11/13 | Biot-Savart law. Forces between current-carrying wires. Showed that div B = 0 from Biot-Savart law. |
| W 11/15 | Ampere's law in differential and integral form. Vector potential. |
| F 11/17 | Vector potential for the current loop in terms of elliptic integrals. Problem Set 10 due. |
| M 11/20 | Magnetic dipoles. Dipole moment of a planar current loop. Force on a dipole in an external magnetic field. |
| W 11/22 | Torque on a magnetic dipole. Macroscopic magnetostatics. Low brow derivation of the equations for B and H. Boundary conditions. |
| F 11/24 | Thanksgiving break (no class) |
| M 11/27 | Boundary value problems in magnetostatics. Fields produced by a uniformly magnetized sphere. |
| W 11/29 | Faraday's law, nonrelativisitic transformation of fields. Maxwell's equations. |
| F 12/1 | Course evaluation. Energy in the magnetic field. Self and mutual inductance. Started discussing eddy currents. Problem Set 11 due. |
| M 12/4 | Skin effect in conductors. Conservation laws. Started derivation of Poynting's theorem. |
| W 12/6 | Poynting's theorem. Conservation of momentum and the stress-energy tensor. |
| Th 12/14 | Final Exam 9am-12 noon |