I. Introduction

Electricity and Magnetism is the part of physics that explains electric charge, electric and magnetic fields, and how those fields produce forces, energy, and real technology. E&M is the foundation for circuits, motors, generators, electromagnets, antennas, RF/wireless, and a lot of modern engineering.

II. Outline

  1. Electric Charge and Coulomb’s Law
    • Charge, conductors vs insulators
    • Coulomb’s law and superposition
    • Continuous charge distributions (line/surface/volume charge density)
  2. Electric Field
    • Definition of electric field and force on a test charge
    • Field of point charges and distributions
    • Motion of charges in electric fields
  3. Gauss’s Law
    • Electric flux and Gaussian surfaces
    • Using symmetry (spheres, cylinders, planes)
    • Conductors in electrostatic equilibrium
  4. Voltage/Electric Potential
    • Potential energy vs potential (voltage)
    • Relationship between E and V
    • Equipotential surfaces and interpreting maps
    • Potential from point charges and distributions
  5. Capacitance and Dielectrics
    • Capacitors
    • Parallel plate, series/parallel combinations - Energy stored in electric fields - Dielectrics and how materials change capacitance/fields
  6. Current and DC Circuits
    • Current, current density, drift velocity
    • Resistance, resistivity, temperature effects
    • EMF and basic circuit models
    • Kirchhoff’s rules, Power in circuits
    • RC circuits
    • time constants, charging/discharging
  7. Magnetic Field and Magnetic Forces
    • Magnetic force on moving charges and currents
    • Motion in uniform magnetic-fields
    • Force on current-carrying wires
  8. Sources of Magnetic Fields
    • Biot–Savart law
    • Ampere’s law
    • Fields of wires, loops, solenoids, toroids
  9. Electromagnetic Induction
    • Magnetic flux and Faraday’s law
    • Lenz’s law
    • Motional EMF
    • Eddy currents and braking examples
  10. Inductance and RL/RLC
    • Self-inductance and mutual inductance
    • Energy stored in magnetic fields
    • RL circuits & time constants
    • RLC circuits and resonance

III. Free Resources

IV. Video Series

V. See Also