28628 - General Physics T-B

Academic Year 2019/2020

  • Docente: Franco Vazza
  • Credits: 6
  • SSD: FIS/01
  • Language: Italian
  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
  • Campus: Bologna
  • Corso: First cycle degree programme (L) in Energy Engineering (cod. 0924)

Learning outcomes

Giving the students the tools to learn the experimental scientific method, the basic physical grounds of ElectroMagnetism and its technological applications. 

Course contents

ELECTROSTATIC

  • Electric charge and its conservation
  • Isolating and conductor materials
  • Charge induction
  • Coulomb Law
  • Electric field
  • Electric flux for continuous charge distributions
  • Gauss theorem and applications
  • Conservative forces and potential
  • Electric potential
  • Examples of different analytical distributions 
  • Electric dipole
  • Electrostatic energy, the electronvolt
  • Electric capacity
  • Serial and parallel capacitors
  • Capacitors and dielectrics
  •  

ELECTRIC CURRENTS

  • The battery
  • The electric current
  • The Ohm's Law. Resistance and resistivity
  • Electric power, applications to common circuits
  • Alternating current
  • Serial and parallale resistances
  • Superconductors
  • Electromotive force and tension between terminals
  • Kirchoff's laws
  • Electromotive force in serial and parallel
  • RC circuits

MAGNETISM

  • Magnets and magnetic fields
  • Magnetic force around a wire
  • Lorentz force and Larmor radius
  • Hall effect
  • Magnetic moment
  • Magnetic force between conducting wires
  • Ampere's law
  • Biot-Savart's law
  • Ferromagnetism and hysteresis
  • Induced electromagnetic force
  • Faraday's law and electromagnetic induction
  • Lenz' law
  • Induced electromagnetic force in a moving  conductor
  • Electric generators
  • Foucault currents
  • Mutual inductance
  • Self-inductance
  • RL, LC, RLC circuits
  • Resonances with alternate currents, power transmission

CHAPTERS IN GIANCOLI'S TEXTBOOK (EXAMPLES INCLUDED):

 

• Chap 21: 1-11 included 

• Chap 22: 1-3 included

• Chap 23: 1-8 included

• Chap 24: 1-6 included

• Chap 25: 1-8 included

• Chap 26: 1-6 included

• Chap 27: sections from 1 to 6 (included) + section 8;

• Chap 28: sections from 1 to 10 (included);

• Chap 29: sections from 1 to 4 (included) + sections 6 and 7;

• Chap 30: sections from 1 to 5 (included).

Readings/Bibliography

  • Giancoli, Fisica 2, second editon (Publisher: Casa editrice Ambrosiana, 2010)
  • Lectures (slides) uploaded in the University web portal, covering all topics taught during lecture. Most of this material follows from previous years lectures by Prof. Carbone. 
  • Additional exercises of electromagnetism given during the course as slides.
  • A collection of ~140 exercises with solutions, given at the end of the course. 

Teaching methods

  • Discussion of fundamental principles of electromagnetism
  • practical experiences (easy to replicate even after lecture) in order to better acquire the main concepts taught at lecture
  • quantitative exercises for the application of theory
  • historical and social background of most important achievements of electromagnetism.
  • usage of the Kahoot! web-based platform for to check the class learning curve live (https://kahoot.com)

Assessment methods

During lecture: several live exercises, involving students in the solution.

Usage of the Kahoot! web-based platform for to check the class learning curve live (https://kahoot.com)

Outside lectures: personal meetings during receiving hours.

During the exam: quantitative exercises that condense all most important topic of the entire course.

The exam consists o a written exam (1.5-2 hours), including 3 problems to be solved and 2 theory questions. The oral exam is on demand, whenever the written exam results sufficient, and allows the student to improve (or worsen) the final mark of the Physics TB exam.

New (starting from June 2019 included): only the last written exam in TB is considered to give the final mark (not the best one, as in the past). A student who got already a >=18 mark in a previous TB exam can chose to try again, but unless he/she withdraw from the exam before the end, the grade in this exam (including an not sufficient one) is the new one which is considered in the final TA+TB grade. 

The final mark of the TA+TB exam consists of the arithmetic mean (rounded up) for the two marks in the TA and TB modules.

Teaching tools

  • Several experiments and examples showed during lectures by the teacher.
  • Video contributions to show practical applications in modern technology or spectacular physical phenomena

Office hours

See the website of Franco Vazza

SDGs

Affordable and clean energy Industry, innovation and infrastructure Sustainable cities Responsible consumption and production

This teaching activity contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda.