General Information

Second course in the introductory engineering sequence. Topics include: electric forces and fields, electric energy and potential, circuits, magnetic forces and fields, magnetic induction, and Maxwell’s equations. Taught at a level somewhat higher than University Physics, Vol. 2, by Young and Freedman. The math prerequisite is essential: line, surface, and volume integrals are done routinely and occasional use is made of gradient, divergence, and curl. Video lectures can be found here.

Prerequisites

PHYS 1112 (or strong performance in PHYS 2207) and one of MATH 1920, MATH 2220, or MATH 2240.

Topics Covered

  • Electric forces and fields
  • Electric energy and potential
  • Circuits
  • Magnetic forces and fields
  • Magnetic induction
  • Maxwell’s equations

Workload

One pset per week, pre-lecture exercises before every lecture, in lecture learning catalytics (only participation), and a longer set of learning catalytic exercises during discussion. [Fall 2022]

General Advice

As with a lot of E&M classes, you’re gonna be solving a lot of classic problems, then doing small variations to them. So, if you’re taking a test or doing a pset and don’t understand something, try and see how its similar to old problems. Also, because these questions are so “classic” there is a lot on the internet on how to solve them. Just know that there are probably only 4-5 questions they will ask you on any given subject (ie. gauss law has a few possible questions, you end up solving them all). [Fall 2022]

Testimonials

This class covers basic electrostatics (coloumb, gauss law, capacitors, brief fields in matter), circuits up to RLC circuits, magnetostatics, briefly covering dynamics with Faraday and Lenz law, and ending with light. This class was taught ““flipped classroom”” style, so if that’s not something you might like then do not take the class. In general I would not recommend this class to physics or stem majors that may end up taking a second course in electrodynamics. First of all, the subject is treated at a fairly simple level, and I think taking 2217 may prepare physics students better for upper level classes in general (psets + more complicated problems), and especially for electrodynamics. Second, in my experience flipped classroom is honestly pretty annoying. I remember the pre-lecture quizzes being mostly busy work without actually teaching me much, plus the lectures were not very useful. If you can’t tell i’m not a fan of flipped classroom. Rating 3/5. [Fall 2022]

Past Offerings

Semester Professor Median Grade Syllabus
Spring 2019 Alan Giambattista B+  
Fall 2020 Ivan Bazarov B+  
Fall 2021 Ivan Bazarov B+ PHYS2213_FA21
Spring 2022 Alan Giambattista B+  
Fall 2022 Nam-Jung Kim B+ PHYS2213_SP21