PHYS 436 :: Physics Illinois :: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Schedule

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New Homework assignments will be published on this page on Friday.  They will be due on Fridays of the next week at 1159 pm.  You can submit your homework up to five days later (Wednesday night at 1159pm) for 75% credit if there is no exam scheduled that week; for such cases, only three more days will be given.  After that late deadline, no credit can be earned.  

To hand in HW assignments, we use Gradescope.  If you do your HW on paper, carefully scan your solution pages to produce a clean and legible pdf file.  If you use an electronic tablet for your work, use it to produce a pdf file.  Submitt your file to the Gradescope HW depository.  It is important that your file can actually be read and graded.  Illegible files will not be graded and will result in zero credit. Please create a Gradescope account if you do not have one already, and use code 3XKY6W to add PHYS 436.  

Please note that this webpage will be updated for links to the lecture notes and the discussion materials.

 

Date Lecture Reading (Griffiths Sections) Homework Discussion Exams
Monday 8/25/2025

Lecture 1
Review of PHYS 435 to Faraday's Law and Magnetic Field Energy
Lecture1.pdf

 1.1 - 7.2
 		      
Tuesday
8/26/2025		       No Discussion  
Wednesday
8/27/2025		 Lecture 2
Locality and Maxwell's Equations
Conservation Laws in Electrodynamics
Lecture2.pdf		 7.3 - 8.1.1      
Friday
8/29/2025		 Lecture 3
Poynting's Theorem
Lecture3.pdf		 8.1.2, 8.2.1 Assign HW1
due Sep 5, 2025 23:59 for 100%
Sep 10, 2025 23:59 for 75%
HW1
 		  
Monday
9/1/2025		 No class (Labor Day)        
Tuesday 9/2/2025      

Discussion 1 pdf 

Solutions 1 pdf

  

Wednesday
9/3/2025

Lecture 4
Conservation of Momentum
Lecture4.pdf

 8.2.2      
Friday
9/5/2025		 Lecture 5
Maxwell Stress Tensor
Lecture5.pdf		 8.2.3

Assign HW2
due Sep 12, 2025 23:59 for 100%
Sep 17, 2025 23:59 for 75%
HW2

    
Monday
9/8/2025		 Lecture 6
EM Angular Momentum Density
Lecture6.pdf		 8.2.4  

 

  
Tuesday
9/9/2025		     -

Discussion 2 pdf

Solutions 2

  
Wednesday
9/10/2025		 Lecture 7
Classical Wave Equation
Lecture7.pdf		 9.1      
Friday
9/12/2025		 Lecture 8
Electromagnetic Waves
Lecture8.pdf		 9.2.1, 9.2.2 Assign
due Sep 19, 2025 23:59 for 100%
Sep 24, 2025 23:59 for 75%
HW3		    
Monday
9/15/2025		 Lecture 9
Energy and Momentum of EM Waves
 		 9.2.3  

 

 

  
Tuesday
9/16/2025		      

Discussion 3

Solutions 3

  
Wednesday
9/17/2023		 Lecture 10
EM Waves in Isotropic Linear Media
 		 9.3.1      
Friday
9/19/2023		 Lecture 11
Normal Reflection and Transmission of EM Waves 
 		 9.3.2

Assign
due Sep 26, 2025 23:59 for 100%
Oct 1, 2025 23:59 for 75%
HW4

    
Monday
9/22/2025		 Lecture 12
Oblique Reflection and Transmission of EM Waves
 		 9.3.3  

 

 

  
Tuesday
9/23/2025		      

Discussion 4

Solutions 4

  
Wednesday
9/24/2025		 Lecture 13
EM Waves in Conductors
 		 9.4.1  

 

  
Friday
9/26/2025		 Lecture 14
Optical Dispersion
 		 9.4.2 Assign
due Oct 3, 2025 23:59 for 100%
Oct 8, 2025 23:59 for 75%
HW5		    

Monday
9/29/2025

 Lecture 15
Waveguides
 		 9.5.1  

 

  
Tuesday
9/30/2025		      

Discussion 5

Solutions 5

  
Wednesday
10/1/2025		 Lecture 16
Rectangular Waveguides
 		 9.5.2  

 

  
Friday
10/3/2025

Lecture 17
Coaxial Cables

 

 9.5.3 Assign
due Oct 10, 2025 23:59 for 100%
HW6		    
Monday
10/6/2025		 Lecture 18
Resonant Cavity
 		 9.5.2  

 

 

  
Tuesday
10/7/2025		    

 

 

  
Wednesday
10/8/2025

 

        
Friday
10/10/2025		 No Lecture        
Monday
10/13/2025		 MidTerm 1        
Tuesday
10/14/2025		  

 

    

Discussion 6

Solutions 6

  
Wednesday
10/15/2025

Lecture 19
Potential Formulation of Electrodynamics
 

 10.1.1      
Friday
10/17/2025

Lecture 20
Gauge Transformations 

 10.1.2, 10.1.3

Assign
due Oct 24, 2025 23:59 for 100%
Oct 29, 2025 23:59 for 75%
HW7

    
Monday
10/20/2025

Lecture 21
Retarded and Advanced Potentials
 

 10.2      
Tuesday
10/21/2025
 		    

 

Discussion 7

Solutions 7

  
Wednesday
10/22/2025

Lecture 21
Liénard-Wiechert Potentials
 

 10.3.1
 		    
Friday
10/24/2025

Lecture 22
E&M Field of a Moving Charge 1
 

 10.3.2 Assign
due Oct 31, 2025 23:59 for 100%
Nov 5, 2025 23:59 for 75%
HW8

 

  
Monday
10/27/2025		 Lecture 23
E&M Field of a Moving Charge 2
 		 10.3.2

 

 

  
Tuesday
10/28/2025

 

    

Discussion 7

Solutions 7

  
Wednesday
10/29/2025

Lecture 24
Electric Dipole Radiation and Antenna
 

 11.1.1, 11.1.2  

 

  
Friday
10/31/2025		 Lecture 25
Radiation from Arbitrary Charge / Current Distribution 1
 		 11.1.4 Assign
due Nov 7, 2025 23:59 for 100%
Nov 12, 2025 23:59 for 75%
HW9		    
Monday
11/3/2025

Lecture 26
Radiation from Arbitrary Charge / Current Distribution 2
 

 11.1.4

 

    
Tuesday
11/4/2025

 

    

 

Discussion 7

Solutions 7

  
Wednesday
11/5/2025

Lecture 27
Magnetic Dipole Radiation
 

 11.1.3      
Friday
11/7/2025

Lecture 28
Larmor Formula
 

 11.2.1, 11.2.2  

 

  
Monday
11/10/2025		 Lecture 29
Radiation Reaction
 		 11.2.3      
Tuesday
11/11/2025

 

  
 		 No Discussion


 
Wednesday
11/12/2025		 No Lecture  

 

 

  
Tuesday
11/13/2025

Midterm 2

        
Wednesday
4/12/2023

Lecture 34
How to turn in the exam tonight
Inhomogeneous Wave Equation from Maxwell
Homogeneous Wave Equation
Structure of Electromagnetic Waves
Poynting the way to Intensity of Electromagnetic Waves
pdf

 Griffiths 8.1.2
Notes		  

 

 
Thursday
4/13/2023		          
Friday
4/14/2023

Lecture 35
Plane Waves
Polarization of EM radiation
Intensity of EM radiation
Sinusoidal EM Waves
pdf

 Notes
Griffiths 9.1-2		 HW9 due for full credit 1159pm
due Sunday 4/16 at 1159pm for 90% credit		    
Monday
4/17/2023

Lecture 36
​Superposition of Sinusoidal Waves
Pulses and Bandwidth (uncertainty condition)​
pdf

 Griffiths 9.2
Notes		  

 

Discussion 12

Solution 12

  
Tuesday
4/18/2023

 

  

HW10 Homework Office Hour
144 Loomis
5-6pm 

    
Wednesday
4/19/2023

Lecture 37
Propagation of EM waves in Dielectrics
Polarization Current Density
Index of Refraction
pdf

 Griffiths 9.2
Notes

 

 

  
Thursday
4/20/2023		          
Friday
4/22/2022

Lecture 38
Reflection and Refraction from Dielectric Interfaces I
​pdf

 Griffiths 9.3.2-3
​Notes

Introduce HW11
HW10 due
due April 21 1159pm for 100%
or due April 23 1159pm for 90% 

    
Monday
4/24/2023		 Lecture 39
​Reflection and Refraction from Dielecrtric Interfaces II
​pdf		 Griffiths 9.3.3

Assign HW11
HW11 Solution
Due May 1 at 1159 pm for 100%
  or May 3 1159pm for 90%

Discussion 13

Solution 13

  
Tuesday
4/25/2023

 

   HW11 Homework Office Hour
144 Loomis
5-6pm 		    
Wednesday
4/26/2023

Lecture 40
​Propagation of EM waves in Conductors
Reflection of EM waves from Conductors
​pdf

 Notes
Griffirths 9.4		  

 

  
Thursday
4/27/2023		          
Friday
4/28/2023

Lecture 41
​Reflection of EM waves from Conductors
pdf

 Notes      
Monday
5/1/2023		 Lecture 42
Review Statics
pdf		   HW11 due
due May 1 1159pm for 100%
due May 3 1159pm for 90%

Discussion 14

Solution 14

  
Tuesday
5/2/2023

 

        
Wednesday
5/3/2023

Lecture 43
Review Dynamics
​pdf

   HW11 due
due May 3 1159pm for 90%

 

  
Thursday
5/4/2023		 Reading Day        
Friday
5/5/2023

Exams Start

        
Friday
5/12/2023		 Final Exam via Zoom
130-430pm