2021 Faculty Courses Liberal arts and basic science courses Basic science and technology courses
Fundamentals of Electromagnetism 1 G
- Academic unit or major
- Basic science and technology courses
- Instructor(s)
- Yoichi Yatsu
- Class Format
- Lecture
- Media-enhanced courses
- -
- Day of week/Period
(Classrooms) - 3-4 Tue (W242)
- Class
- G
- Course Code
- LAS.P103
- Number of credits
- 100
- Course offered
- 2021
- Offered quarter
- 3Q
- Syllabus updated
- Jul 10, 2025
- Language
- Japanese
Syllabus
Course overview and goals
This course teaches the basics of static electric and magnetic fields in vacuum, starting with Coulomb’s force law for charges.
Electromagnetism is important for understanding nature, and is essential for the study of science, engineering, life sciences, and other specialized courses. Students will understand how charges and current produce electric and magnetic fields, respectively, and their mathematical descriptions. This will allow them to understand static electromagnetic phenomena as well as allow them to solve basic problems in electromagnetism.
Course description and aims
By completing this course, students will be able to:
1) Understand the concepts of electric field, electric potential, electrostatic energy, magnetic flux density, magnetic moment, etc., correctly, and describe them mathematically.
2) Understand Gauss's law for electric fields and the Biot-Savart law for magnetic fields correctly, and find the electric field and magnetic flux density by applying said laws.
3) Find mathematical solutions to problems in electromagnetism expressed by the appropriate equations, and explain the physical meaning of said solutions.
Keywords
Coulomb’s law, electric field, Gauss's law, electric potential, conductor, condenser, capacitance, electrostatic energy, electric current, magnetic force, magnetic flux density, magnetic moment, Biot-Savart law
Competencies
- Specialist skills
- Intercultural skills
- Communication skills
- Critical thinking skills
- Practical and/or problem-solving skills
Class flow
Two-thirds of each class is devoted to fundamentals and the rest to advanced content or application. To allow students to get a good understanding of the course contents and practice application, problems related to the contents of this course are provided in Exercises in Physics II.
Course schedule/Objectives
| Course schedule | Objectives | |
|---|---|---|
| Class 1 | Coulomb’s law and Gauss law (force between charges, superposition, electric lines of force, introduction of an electric field) | Explain the concepts of charge, electric field, and their relationship. |
| Class 2 | Electric field and electric potential, dipoles (calculation of electric field by the Gauss law, and mathematical relation between the field and the potential. | Explain Gauss law for calculating electric fields. Explain how to estimate electric potential. |
| Class 3 | An electric field and a conductor, electrostatic energy (part 1) | Explain how the Gauss low should be applied to a conductor, Calculate electrostatic energy. |
| Class 4 | Electrostatic energy (part 2), a current and a magnetic field. | Explain the electric energy density. Explain a magnetic field around a current. |
| Class 5 | Lorenz force expressed by outer product, Gauss law for magnetic flux density. | Explain relation among magnetic flux density, motion of charge, and Lorenz force. Grab the difference between magnetic flux density and an electric field in terms of Gauss law. |
| Class 6 | Magnetic moment, Biot-Savart's law (part 1) | Explain that a current loop is equivalent to magnetic moment。Explain the experiment that proved the presence of a magnetic flux around a current line. |
| Class 7 | Biot-Savart's law (part 2), Ampere’s law | Calculate the magnitude of magnetic flux density around a current line having finite length |
Study advice (preparation and review)
To enhance effective learning, students are encouraged to spend approximately 100 minutes preparing for class and another 100 minutes reviewing class content afterwards (including assignments) for each class.
They should do so by referring to textbooks and other course material.
Textbook(s)
handouts are planed to be distributed.
Reference books, course materials, etc.
none
Evaluation methods and criteria
Scores are based on the final exam.
Related courses
- LAS.P106 ： Exercises in Physics II
Prerequisites
No prerequisites.