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Dear Physics 212 Students (current or former),
Welcome to the world of Electromagnetism! In Physics 212, you'll take a guided tour through the essential principles of E & M, one of the most beautiful (and bizarre) theories developed by man.
But would you like to know more?
If you have an especially keen interest in physics, and would like to explore electromagnetic theory in greater depth, we invite you to consider the honors supplement to this course: Physics 199HO.
In this 1-hour credit course, we'll work through the fundamentals of E & M in parallel with Physics 212, but we'll be doing so using the more sophisticated mathematics of vector calculus and complex numbers. Just as English is the natural language of Shakespeare's plays, these mathematical tools are the natural language of E&M. We'll spend plenty of time developing an intuitive understanding of this language, so that you can discover for yourself some of the most profound features of electromagnetism:
Physics 199HO meets every week for two hours in an informal discussion-type setting --- you'll be discovering the material yourself, not listening to someone explain it.
- We'll explore the amazing symmetry of Maxwell's equations, and learn how to express all of electromagnetic theory in terms of one single equation.
- ... and you'll discover that embedded within Maxwell's equations is one of the most bizarre theories ever developed: Special Relativity. Space and time are not what they appear to be --- one person's space is another person's time, and that leads to some very strange consequences indeed ...
- We'll construct some theories of our own: for example, what would the world be like if magnetic monopoles *did* exist?