This unit has lectures and SGTAs covering content on electromagnetism and special relativity, and laboratories with experiment on a range of topics. 

The lecture content from the first half of the unit will be assessed using a take-home problem set due in week 8. The assignment will be released no later than 26 August, Wednesday week 5.  

The practical component of the unit will be assessed via a portfolio of documentation, due in week 13. We will guide you through the process of building your lab portfolio throughout the session. 

The content from both the first and second halves of the unit will be tested in the final exam.

Special Consideration

The Special Consideration Policy aims to support students who have been impacted by short-term circumstances or events that are serious, unavoidable and significantly disruptive, and which may affect their performance in assessment. If you experience circumstances or events that affect your ability to complete the assessments in this unit on time, please inform the convenor and submit a Special Consideration request through http://connect.mq.edu.au/.

Short Extensions

For some assessment types, students are allowed to request an extra 3 calendar days to complete eligible assessments. No reason or evidence is required. This only applies to individual assessments with the Short Extension flag in CMS marked as ‘yes’. Please ensure that the unit guide specifies whether short extensions apply to any of the assessments in your unit.

Late Assessment Submission Penalty 

Unless a Special Consideration request has been submitted and approved, a 5% penalty (of the total possible mark of the task) will be applied for each day a written report or presentation assessment is not submitted, up until the 7^th day (including weekends). After the 7^th day, a grade of ‘0’ will be awarded even if the assessment is submitted. The submission time for all uploaded assessments is 11:55 pm. A 1-hour grace period will be provided to students who experience technical concerns. For any late submission of time-sensitive tasks, such as scheduled tests/exams, performance assessments/presentations, and/or scheduled practical assessments/labs, please apply for Special Consideration. For example, if the assignment is worth 8 marks (of the entire unit) and your submission is late by 19 hours (or 23 hours 59 minutes 59 seconds), 0.4 marks (5% of 8 marks) will be deducted. If your submission is late by 24 hours (or 47 hours 59 minutes 59 seconds), 0.8 marks (10% of 8 marks) will be deducted, and so on.

Requirement to pass this unit:

To pass the unit you must acheive a total mark of 50% or greater. 

The content from both the first and second halves of the unit will be tested in the final exam.The main text for the unit is Griffiths, "Introduction to Electrodynamics".

This unit is taught through lectures and SGTA (Small Group Teaching Activities) and through undertaking laboratory experiments. We strongly encourage students to attend lectures because they provide a much more interactive and effective learning experience than studying a text book. The lecturer is able to interpret the physics that you will be learning, showing you the relationships between different components/concepts and emphasising the key physics principles involved. Questions during and outside lectures are strongly encouraged in this unit - please do not be afraid to ask, as it is likely that your classmates will also want to know the answer. You should aim to read the relevant sections of the textbook before and after lectures and discuss the content with classmates and lecturers.

This unit includes a experimental component. The experiments are stand-alone investigations and include topics not covered by the lecture content of this unit - they are an important part of the learning for this unit and the skills learned are essential for a well-rounded physics graduate.

You should aim to spend an average of 3 hours per week understanding the material and working on the SGTA (Small Group Teaching Activity) problems and exercises. Attempting SGTA (Small Group Teaching Activity) questions  is one of the key learning activities for this unit. It is by applying knowledge learned from lectures and textbooks to solve problems that you are best able to test and develop your skills and understanding of the material. SGTAs will include formative quizzes, to help you assess how your learning is progressing.

As mentioned, there are many useful web resources on this material and we encourage you to seek out youtube videos and other resources.  However, while reading over the lecture notes and reading the textbook are very important, reading notes and watching physics videos are passive learning activities. It is critical that a substantial portion of your study time in physics is devoted to active learning strategies by attempting numerous problems from the text, SGTA, assignment and past exams. It is simply impossible to become adept in this subject by watching physics problems, you must do physics problems.

Methods of Communication

We will communicate with you via your university email and through announcements on iLearn. Queries to convenors can either be placed on the iLearn discussion board or sent to the unit convenor via the contact email on iLearn.

The first half of this unit is electromagnetism, and the second half is special relativity. 

Lectures and SGTAs start in week 1, and labs start in week 2. 

Full details of the lab program will be provided in iLearn. Please check in week 1 for details of any preparation required for your week 2 lab session.