PHYS 322 A: Electromagnetism II

Lecture Instructor: Matt DePies
email: mrdepies@uw.edu
Office: B472

Office Hours: Monday: 1-2 pm, Wednesday: 11:30 am -12:30 pm.

• Head TA:  Cameron Shotwell
  • email: cshotwel@uw.edu
  • office hours: Wednesday, 1:15-2:15 pm, Location PAB B405 
• TA:  Baker Hase
  • email: bhase@uw.edu
  • office hours: Monday 10:50-11:50 am, Location PAB B123. 
• TA:  Olivia Calcerano
  • email: calceoli@uw.edu

• Lecture Hall:  PAA A110

• Lecture schedule:  MW 9:40 am- 11:20 am

• Course Texts: Griffiths, "Introduction to Electrodynamics", 5^th edition 
• Education Research Opt-out [link]

Tentative Weekly Course Schedule: This will be followed as closely as possible, and changes will be announced as necessary. This includes both lecture and tutorial, so look closely!

Tentative Schedule Phys 322A Summer 2026

phys322_sum26_schedule.pdf

Lecture Instructor's Comments

• Welcome to the second quarter of three Electricity and Magnetism courses at the University of Washington. You should find this course quite challenging, and the expenditure of time required to fully grasp the subject should be high. That said, you should also find that your mathematical and physics abilities greatly increased by the effort.

• Classical Electromagnetic theory is one of the great stepping stones to modern physics, thus this class lays the foundation for more advanced classes. In particular, A. Einstein's work in electrodynamics led him ultimately to his Theory of Relativity.

• Maxwell's collection of equations is also a powerful example of what is known as a unified theory. In this case it connects the electric field with the magnetic field in a single theoretical framework. This model has proved to be one of the great achievements in human intellectual development.

General Comments

• Given that this is Summer Quarter, there are several things to be aware of. One is that there are only nine weeks. The other is that there is no finals week, the final exam is the last day of the quarter. 

Grading Policy

The final course grade is based on the midterms and final, HW, tutorials, and possibly lecture exercises. 

• Homework (7.5% of class grade)
  
  • There will be weekly homework sets (starting in the second week), due Thursday at 11:59 pm. Homework should be submitted on Canvas.
  • You are encouraged to discuss the assignments with classmates, but the solutions you turn in must be your own work.
  • Working on assignments in a timely fashion is a crucial part of the learning process. Late assignments will only be accepted by prearrangement, and only under exceptional circumstances.
  • The homework will be graded for completeness and effort, not for correctness. This does not mean correctness doesn't matter, just that resources will be spent elsewhere. You will need to know how to do the problems for the quizzes and ultimately the exams.
  • Regrade requests must be made by the end of the class session following that in which the HWs are returned and must be made in Canvas where it is graded.
  • We will drop the lowest homework score at the end of the quarter.

• Quizzes (12.5%)
  
  • • There will be weekly quizzes on Wednesdays, starting the second week. These will be based on the same material as the HWs turned in that week.
    • Quizzes will be distributed in print at the lecture and due in 20 min.
    • We will have lectures prior to the quiz, due to the shortened nature of the summer quarter.
    • Regrade requests for quizzes follow the same procedure as for HWs, but they will be in Gradescope.
    • We will drop the lowest quiz grade at the end of the quarter before tabulating the final grade.
• Tutorials [20% total] Tutorial pretests, tutorials, and tutorial homework will be done during the quarter. The lowest score in each is dropped.
  • • Pretests [0%]: For this quarter we will not have tutorial pretests due to rendering issues with images.
    • Tutorial Participation [6%]: You will receive points for actively participating in each tutorial. You must actively engage with your group and TA's to receive these points.
    • Tutorial Homework [14%]: You will have homework due each week on Monday midnight from the tutorial homework book in Canvas/Files/Tutorial Material. These are graded on correctness as well as content.
• Midterm and Final exams (60%)
  • • There will be two midterms and a final exam.
    • The midterms will be on 15th July and  5 August during the lecture time on Wednesday, and 60 minutes in length.
    • The final exam is on Wednesday 19th from 9:40-11:20 am in PAA A110.
    • If you have to miss an exam due to a UW sponsored activity or military service (e.g. traveling for a sports team) please contact me ASAP.
    • Exam rules will be discussed in class and posted on this web page closer to the exams.
  • Note that there will be no make-up exams. Students with outside professional, service, or career commitments (i.e. military service, ROTC, professional conference presentation, NCAA sports, etc.) conflicting exactly with the exam dates must contact the instructor early in the quarter to establish alternate examination procedures.  Except for extreme circumstances, a final grade of 0.0 may be assigned to any student who misses two midterm exams.

Exams

Note that there are no make-up exams.  So, students with outside professional, service, or career commitments (i.e. military service, ROTC, professional conference presentation, NCAA sports, etc.) conflicting with the exam dates must contact me early in the quarter to establish alternate examination procedures. Exam scores for students who miss an exam without making prior arrangements will be zero.

Each exam is out of 100 points, and will cover all material up to the homework due that week. They will be 60 minutes in length. This will typically be material covered the previous week in lecture. See the schedule for details of topics covered. The final will be comprehensive.

Exams will count for 60% of your grade.  Your overall exam score will be based on the best of the following two methods:

• • Method 1: 60% from your average exam score for the two midterms and the final.
  • Method 2: 20% from your best midterm score and 40% from your final exam score

If the average score on an exam is found to be below 65%, we will boost the score of each exam by an amount such that the average is 65%. No individual score can exceed 100%.

If a student is found responsible for misconduct during an exam, a score of zero will be given for that exam for this student.  If the misconduct occurs during a midterm, only Method 1 is used to calculate the final grade, and Method 2 is not used.

• Your responsibilty: Check your grades on Canvas and Gradescope every week or two and report any problems to the lecture instructor and tutorial instructor immediately. Exam and homework grades should be recorded for your review within one week from the date that papers are submitted for grading. Supplemental HW, if assigned, should be recorded every two weeks or so. Grading problems that are reported in a timely fashion will be investigated and, if action is warranted, corrected. The lecture instructor may choose to ignore grading complaints that are not reported in a timely fashion.

Course Grade

• First note that you will obtain a 0.0 grade unless you take at least one of the midterms and the final exam.
• The final grade will be a weighted sum of the components above.
• We will use a modified standard UW undergraduate grade scale. More information to come.

• Your final weighted percentage is converted to a grade point using the following thresholds. 
  

  grade point	final course score		grade point	final course score		grade point	final course score		grade point	final course score
  4.0	93		3.0	78		2.0	63		1.0	48
  3.9	91.5		2.9	76.5		1.9	61.5		0.9	46.3
  3.8	90		2.8	75		1.8	60		0.8	44.6
  3.7	88.5		2.7	73.5		1.7	58.5		0.7	42.9
  3.6	87		2.6	72		1.6	57
  3.5	85.5		2.5	70.5		1.5	55.5
  3.4	84		2.4	69		1.4	54
  3.3	82.5		2.3	67.5		1.3	52.5
  3.2	81		2.2	66		1.2	51
  3.1	79.5		2.1	64.5		1.1	49.5

The Physics Study Center

Students are encouraged to gather and work cooperatively in small groups in the Physics Study Center located in room AM018 of PAA. (to reach the Physics Study Center, go down the stairs that circle behind the Foucault pendulum and proceed toward the end of the hall). Teaching assistants will be available for consultation during many portions of the day if your study group needs assistance, but staffing levels will not support much individual attention. The Study Center is staffed from approximately 9:30am to 4:30pm on weekdays.

Class Policies

Attendance Policy: Since participation is vital for a successful experience, please arrive on time for class. Late arrivals interrupt our in-progress activities and discussions. If you must miss a class session, let the instructor know as soon as possible so that you can make up the work that you miss. DO NOT ARRIVE LATE TO CLASS!

Technology in the Classroom: Since technology is profoundly linked to education, there will be many times when I ask that you employ different tools in the gathering and expression of knowledge. Since, however, education is also more than technology, please turn off all laptops, cell phones, iPods, etc before the start of class and I will let you know when we’ll make use of them. (There are exceptions for students with specific note-taking and other needs.)

Research Study Information

This course is part of a research project examining student reasoning ability and attitudes about physics with the goal of improving physics teaching.  By enrolling in this course, you are automatically included in the study. Early in the quarter, students will have an opportunity to learn about the study and to remove themselves from the study if they wish. Your instructor will not know whether or not you participate. Please click on this link to review the details of the study, contact a member of the research team, or remove yourself from the study.

Access and accommodation

Your experience in this class is important to us, so if you have a temporary health condition or permanent disability that requires accommodations (conditions include but are not limited to: mental health, attention-related, learning, vision, hearing, physical), please contact DRS to arrange accommodations.

Safe campus

We are committed to ensuring a safe environment on campus.  We encourage you to check out the resources available here

Religious Accommodations

Washington state law requires that UW develop a policy for accommodation of student absences or significant hardship due to reasons of faith or conscience, or for organized religious activities. The UW’s policy, including more information about how to request an accommodation, is available at Religious Accommodations Policy (https://registrar.washington.edu/staffandfaculty/religious-accommodations-policy/)

. Accommodations must be requested within the first two weeks of this course using the Religious Accommodations Request form (https://registrar.washington.edu/students/religious-accommodations-request/)

Academic integrity and student conduct

The University takes academic integrity and student conduct very seriously.  Behaving with integrity and respect is part of our responsibility to our shared learning community.  Acts of academic misconduct may include, but are not limited to, cheating by working with others or sharing answers on exams.

Please note that taking photos or recording instructors, other students, and course materials without permission is strictly forbidden.  Streaming or posting inappropriate materials on any course platform is also not allowed. 

All the course materials including exam and quiz questions, lecture notes, lecture videos are intellectual properties of the instructor and the University of Washington. Distributing them in any form without permission is forbidden.  

The University of Washington Student Conduct Code (WAC 478-121) defines prohibited academic and behavioral conduct and describes how the University holds students accountable as they pursue their academic goals.  Allegations of misconduct by students may be referred to the appropriate campus office for investigation and resolution.  More information can be found online at https://www.washington.edu/studentconduct/

If you’re uncertain about if something is academic or behavioral misconduct, ask us.  we are willing to discuss questions you might have.