Electrodynamics: An Introduction

Overview

The depth and breadth of electromagnetism, the foundation for many fields including materials science, electrical engineering, and physical chemistry, requires a long, steep, and steady learning curve. This course aims to bridge the gap between the fundamental principles taught in electromagnetism and its practical application to specific fields such as materials, physics, and chemistry related to energy storage and harvesting. The goal of Electrodynamics: An Introduction is to not only teach electromagnetism but also introduce some mathematical tools which can be used to solve problems in the subject. Within these lecture notes, we review vector calculus and explain how to use fields to visualize the topics we cover. This course is dynamic, as the lectures continuously build on previous notes and a variety of explanations are presented for each solution. Since this is a lower level course, we will focus on the simple concept of electrostatics. This has applications in exploring intermolecular forces, and qualities of capacitors. Through this, we relate electromagnetism to more conventionally studied topics and its application to specific research topics related to energy storage and harvesting.