These notes cover tools and topics that are not covered in the textbook. If any of them make it into the curriculum we will be sure to let you know which ones. For now they are provided as a service to those who get stuck on the math or the programming, and to those who want to go deeper than the lectures.
We know a lot of you haven’t worked with vector analysis yet, although some have (in MEK1100). Because of this, we have included a few notes on curl, divergence and other important topics for this course.
In addition, the course includes some computational physics. We don’t want to burden you with too much programming, so most of the hard work is done already. The notes will help you to set up before you get started.
We also have a few notes from previous years, among them an introduction to Maxwell’s equations. By the end of this course, you will know a great lot about these equations, and to get you started we’ve given an informal introduction that should ease the learning process and make it easier to understand why you’re learning all the topics in the starting weeks.
Should you miss anything in these notes, please gives us feedback on this page or send us an e-mail.
Vector analysis
- Note 1 – Essentials of Vector Calculus
- Note 2 – Flux and Divergence
- Note 3 – Line integrals and Curl
Programming
Concepts in Electromagnetism
- Dipole moment (old)
- The magnetic field from solenoids (old)
- Magnetic vector potential (old)
- Maxwell’s equations (old)