2025 (Current Year) Faculty Courses Liberal arts and basic science courses Basic science and technology courses
Fundamentals of Electromagnetism 1 L
- Academic unit or major
- Basic science and technology courses
- Instructor(s)
- Sadashige Matsuo
- Class Format
- Lecture
- Media-enhanced courses
- -
- Day of week/Period
(Classrooms) - Class
- L
- Course Code
- LAS.P103
- Number of credits
- 100
- Course offered
- 2025
- Offered quarter
- 3Q
- Syllabus updated
- Mar 19, 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 electric field (force between electric charges, introduction of electric field, electric field line) Experiments related to the class 1 | Become able to explain Coulomb's law. |
| Class 2 | Electric field and Gauss's law (calculation of electric field, properties of Gauss's law) Experiments related to the class 2 | Become able to explain Gauss's law. |
| Class 3 | Application of Gauss's law and electric potential (electric charge density distribution) Experiments related to the class 3 | Become able to apply Gauss's law. |
| Class 4 | Conductors (electric fields and potential around conductors, electric shielding) Experiments related to the class 4 | Become able to explain properties of conductors. |
| Class 5 | Capacitors and electrostatic energy (energy stored in the electric field) Experiments related to the class 5 | Become able to explain properties of capacitors. |
| Class 6 | Biot-Savart law (magnetic field caused by electric current) Experiments related to the class 6 | Become able to explain properties of Biot-Savart law. |
| Class 7 | Electric current and magnetic force between currents, magnetic flux density, magnetic flux (magnetic moment) Experiments related to the class 7. | Become able to explain magnetic field caused by a straight electric current. |
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)
"Electromagnetism" Hidekazu Tanaka, Baifukan
Reference books, course materials, etc.
Not specified.
Evaluation methods and criteria
Scores are based on the final exam.
Related courses
- LAS.P106 ： Exercises in Physics II
Prerequisites
No prerequisites.
Contact information (e-mail and phone) Notice : Please replace from ”[at]” to ”@”(half-width character).
matsuo[at]phys.sci.isct.ac.jp
Office hours
Contact by e-mail in advance to schedule an appointment.