PHY2049C (Spring 2025)

Physics Studio B

• Instructor: Prof. Daniel D. Sega (email)
• Instructor’s Office: 2nd Floor, Faculty Wing
• Course Times: Spring 2025, Mon./Wed. 9:30-12:00m /Fri. 1 - 3:30pm,
• Location: Room 309
• Office Hours: Faculty Wing or Room 309: Mon./Tue./Wed./Thu./Fri. 12:20pm-12:50pm
• Syllabus: See the most up-to-date PDF version.

Summary

In this course, engineering and science majors will learn about the electromagnetic phenomena and the motion under electromagnetic fields. They will learn the basics of electronics (circuits) and of how day-to-day electromechanic technology works. They will also learn about the nature of a classical fields and the mathematics behind working with fields.

There’s a lot more information about this course – including details about the textbook, who should/shouldn’t take this class, and how your grade is calculated – in the syllabus.

Course Material

The primary “required readings” are in the OpenStax book University Physics 2.

Here are some additional resources:

• An excellent, more abridged e-book for this course is available through the FSU Library Fundamental of Physics II. Give it a try if the OpenStax book treatment of a topic does not click with you. Ramamurti Shankar writes in a very particular voice that can help some students.
• This book is based on R. Shankar’s Open Course (Yale University), which is available online. These lectures were, and still are, a helpful resource for me.
• The phone app phyphox will be required in some of the labs, download here.

Schedule

Below is a detailed schedule that will list the material covered in each class session, links to electronic copies of any handouts and problem sets, and various course deadlines.

• Mon., January 6: Electrostatics (Chp. 5)

  Handout: syllabus

  Homework 1 (Chp. 5-Electrostatics) assigned, due Fri., January 17.

• Wed., January 8: Electrostatics (Chp. 5)
• Fri., January 10: Problem-solving session | Electrostatics (Chp. 5)
• Mon., January 13: Electrostatics (Chp. 5)
• Wed., January 15: The Electric Field (Chp. 5)
• Fri., January 17: Quiz Chp. 5 (Practice) | The Electric Field (Chp. 5)

• Mon., January 20: The Electric Field (Chp. 5)

  Homework 1 due.

  Homework 2 (Chp. 6 ) assigned, due Mon., February 3.

• Wed., January 22: Gauss’s Law (Chp. 6)

• Fri., January 24: Gauss’s Law (Chp. 6)

  Lab 1: Electrostatic Generator

• Mon., January 27: Gauss’s Law (Chp. 6)
• Wed., January 29: Problem-solving session | Gauss’s Law (Chp. 6)
• Fri., January 31: Problem-solving session | The Electric Potential (Chp. 7)

• Mon., February 3: Quiz Chp. 6 (Practice) | The Electric Potential (Chp. 7)

  Homework 2 due.

  Extra credit reading: The Principle of Sufficient Reason: Origin of Symmetry Arguments

• Wed., February 5: The Electric Potential (Chp. 7).

  Homework 3 (Chp. 7) assigned, due Mon., February 24.

• Fri., February 7: Problem-solving session |The Electric Potential (Chp. 7)
• Mon., February 10: The Electric Potential (Chp. 7)

• Wed., February 12: The Electric Potential (Chp. 7)

  Lab 2: Introduction to the Multimeter

• Fri., February 14: Quiz Chp. 7 (Practice) | The Electric Potential (Chp. 7)
• Mon., February 17: Capacitance (Chp. 8)
• Wed., February 19: Currents and Resistance (Chp. 9)
• Fri., February 21: Problem-solving session | Currents and Resistance (Chp. 9)

• Mon., February 24: Problem-solving session | Currents and Resistance (Chp. 9)

  Homework 3 due

  Homework 4 (Ch 9) assigned, due Fri., March 14.

• Wed., February 26: Currents and Resistance (Chp. 9)

  Lab 3: Introduction to osciloscopes

• Fri., February 28: Quiz Chp. 8 (Practice) | Currents and Resistance (Chp. 9)

  Extra credit reading: What is Real, Field or Potential?

[March 3-7: Spring Break, no classes.]

• Mon., March 10: Currents and Resistance (Chp. 9)
• Wed., March 12: Circuits I (Chp. 10)

• Fri., March 14: Circuits I (Ch. 10)

  Lab 4: Circuits I

• Mon., March 17: Circuits I (Ch. 10)

  Homework 4 due.

• Wed., March 19: Problem-solving session | Circuits I (Ch. 10)

• Fri., March 21: Quiz Chp. 10 (Practice –> Solved) | Magnetism I (Ch. 10)

  Homework 5 (Chp. 10, 11) assigned, due Fri., April 7.

• Mon., March 24: Magnetism I (Ch. 11)
• Wed., March 26: Magnetism I (Ch. 11)

• Fri., March 28: Magnetism I (Ampere’s Law) (Ch. 11)

  Lab 6: CRTs (Cathode Ray Tube)

• Mon., March 31: Magnetism II (Ch. 12)
• Wed., April 2: Magnetism II (Ch. 12)
• Fri., April 4: Magnetism II (Ch. 12)

• Mon., April 7: Magnetism II (Ch. 12)

  Homework 5 due

  Homework 6 (Ch 11-14) assigned, due Fri., April 25.

• Wed., April 9: Problem-Solving Session | More Faraday and Lenz (Ch. 13 & 14)

  Extra credit reading: Action at a Distance

• Fri., April 11: Quiz Chp. 11 & 12 (Practice –> Solved) | More Faraday and Lenz (Ch. 13 & 14)

• Mon., April 14: Ampere, Faraday, and Lenz (Ch. 11, 13, 14)

  Lab 7: Solenoids and Inductors

• Wed., April 16: Problem-solving session | (Practice) | Ampere, Faraday, and Lenz (Ch. 11, 12, 14)

  Extra credit reading: The Coordination Problem

• Fri., April 18: No Clases
• Mon., April 21: Quiz Chp. 13 | Circuits II (Ch. 15)
• Wed., April 23: Circuits II (Ch. 15)

• Fri., April 25: Circuits II (Ch. 15)

  Homework 6 due.

  Lab 8: Circuits III

[Final Exam Week: April 28–May 2. (Practice)]