Electric and magnetic fields

The content of the first of the two courses in electro-magnetic fields offered by the electrical engineering department at MIT to its juniors is summarized. The course deals with electroquasi-statics and magnetoquasistatics throughout, treating electrostatic and magnetostatic phenomena as special cases. This method of presentation allows the introduction of many more engineering examples into lecture demonstrations and homework than is possible in a treatment of statics followed by a treatment of the full dynamic equations, or by an overemphasis on static phenomena with only a belated discussion of quasistatic ideas. Details on several lecture demonstrations and examples are given, and it is shown how they are integrated into the "flow" of ideas. Further, our treatment of magnetization differs from the conventional one and the advantages of this treatment are discussed.