PHY_1S004_EP - Physics II: Electromagnetism and Light (2024-2025)

PHY104 provides an overview of numerous physics concepts related to the description of light and of electromagnetic phenomena.

This course introduces the concept of fields in physics, in particular with the electric and magnetic fields, and develops students’ understanding of electrostatics, magnetostatics, geometrical and wave description of light. In addition, students explore concepts such as Coulomb’s law, Lorentz force, Gauss’ law, Ohm’s law, Faraday’s law, and others.

Upon completion of the course, the students will understand how the classical field theory of electromagnetism with the set of Maxwell equations can describe in a unified way many physical phenomena, from the propagation of light to electrostatics, magnetostatics and electromagnetic induction.

For the initial session, student evaluation is continuous throughout the semester with three written exams regularly spaced, and with equal weight. The third exam is at the end of the semester but is part of the continuous assessment. Each written exam has the same duration of 1 hour and 30 minutes, and covers a third of the course content. For these written exams, only a calculator is authorized, everything else is prohibited. To validate the PHY104 course in the initial session, a minimum average of 10/20 for these 3 written exams is required. Additionally, a project and several homeworks, distributed throughout the semester, are graded and count as a bonus added to the final PHY104 grade if the course is validated. The project gives a bonus of maximum one point, and homeworks also give a bonus of maximum one point (for all of them). 

For the remedial session (if the course is not validated in the initial session), students are evaluated by an oral exam of 45 minutes. It is a final assessment consisting of this oral exam only, with a weight of 100%. For this remedial oral exam, only a calculator is authorized, everything else is prohibited.