Electromagnetism: The main aim of this module is to understand electricity and magnetism using the concept of a field in both static and time-dependent situations. This will lead to an understanding of the integral forms of Maxwell's equations, and of the motion of charged particles in electric and magnetic fields. Temperature and Matter: After a short section on the most fundamental quark and lepton building blocks of matter and the forces which act between them, the main business of this module is to explain some of the thermal and mechanical properties of matter in terms of its atomic / molecular level constituents. This is done through the study of inter-atomic forces and potentials and their implications, the zeroth and first laws of thermodynamics, the Maxwell-Boltzmann and other probability distributions and elementary fluid dynamics. The understanding reached is quantitative, allowing calculations such as: How big is an atom? What is the air pressure at 10,000 m? etc Electric Circuits: Electric circuits are important both in the home and the laboratory. The course will deal with direct current networks of resistors, voltage and current sources. Steady state solutions for alternating current circuits comprised of resitors, inductors and capacitors will be analysed in terms of complex impedances. |