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 Wednesday. They will be due on Wednesday of the next week. You can submit your homework up to five days later (Monday night at 11:59pm) 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 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 |
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| Monday 8/24/2026 |
Lecture 1 Review of PHYS 435, Poynting's Theorem |
Ch. 7, 8.1 |
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| Tuesday 8/25/2026 |
No Discussion | ||||
| Wednesday 8/26/2026 |
Lecture 2 Maxwell Stress Tensor |
8.2 | Assign HW1 due Sep 2, 2026 23:59 for 100% Sep 7, 2026 23:59 for 75% |
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| Friday 8/28/2026 |
Lecture 3 Examples |
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| Monday 8/31/2026 |
Lecture 4 Examples |
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| Tuesday 9/1/2026 |
Discussion 1 |
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| Wednesday 9/2/2026 |
Lecture 5 Conservation of momentum |
8.2.3-4 | Assign HW2 due Sep 9, 2026 23:59 for 100% Sep 14, 2026 23:59 for 75% |
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| Friday 9/4/2026 |
Lecture 6 Classical Wave Equation |
9.1 |
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| Monday 9/7/2026 |
No class (Labor Day) |
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| Tuesday 9/8/2026 |
Discussion 2 |
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| Wednesday 9/9/2026 |
Lecture 7 Electromagnetic Waves |
9.2.1-2 | Assign HW3 due Sep 16, 2026 23:59 for 100% Sep 21, 2026 23:59 for 75% |
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| Friday 9/11/2026 |
Lecture 8 Propagation in Linear Media |
9.2.3 9.3.1-2 |
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| Monday 9/14/2026 |
Lecture 9 Examples |
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| Tuesday 9/15/2026 |
Discussion 3 |
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| Wednesday 9/16/2023 |
Lecture 10 Oblique Incidence |
9.3.2 | Assign HW4 due Sep 23, 2026 23:59 for 100% Sep 28, 2026 23:59 for 75% |
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| Friday 9/18/2023 |
Lecture 11 |
9.3.3 |
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| Monday 9/21/2026 |
Lecture 12 |
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| Tuesday 9/22/2026 |
Discussion 4 |
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| Wednesday 9/23/2026 |
Lecture 13 EM Waves in Conductors |
9.4.1 | Assign HW5 due Sep 30, 2026 23:59 for 100% Oct 5, 2026 23:59 for 75% |
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| Friday 9/25/2026 |
Lecture 14 Frequency dependence of permittivity |
9.4.3 | |||
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Monday |
Lecture 15 |
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| Tuesday 9/29/2026 |
Discussion 5 |
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| Wednesday 9/30/2026 |
Lecture 16 Rectangular Wave Guides |
9.5.1 | Assign HW6 due Oct 7, 2026 23:59 for 100% Oct 12, 2026 23:59 for 75% |
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| Friday 10/2/2026 |
Lecture 17 |
9.5.2 | |||
| Monday 10/5/2026 |
Lecture 18 |
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| Tuesday 10/6/2026 |
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Discussion 6 |
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| Wednesday 10/7/2026 |
Lecture 19 |
9.5.3 | |||
| Friday 10/9/2026 |
Lecture 20 Lorentz Force in Potential Form, Retarded and Advanced Potentials |
10.1.4 10.2.1 |
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| Monday 10/12/2026 |
Lecture 21 Examples |
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| Tuesday 10/13/2026 |
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No Discussion |
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| Wednesday 10/14/2026 |
No Lecture |
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| Friday 10/16/2026 |
MidTerm 1 |
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| Monday 10/19/2026 |
Lecture 22 |
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| Tuesday 10/20/2026 |
Discussion 7 |
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| Wednesday 10/21/2026 |
Lecture 23 Jefimenko's Equations, Liénard-Wiechert Potentials |
10.2.2 10.3.1 |
Assign HW7 due Oct 28, 2026 23:59 for 100% Nov 2, 2026 23:59 for 75% |
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| Friday 10/23/2026 |
Lecture 24 |
10.3.2 |
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| Monday 10/26/2026 |
Lecture 25 |
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| Tuesday 10/27/2026 |
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Discussion 8 |
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| Wednesday 10/28/2026 |
Lecture 26 |
11.1.1, 11.1.2 | Assign HW8 due Nov 4, 2026 23:59 for 100% Nov 9, 2026 23:59 for 75% |
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| Friday 10/30/2026 |
Lecture 27 Magnetic Dipole Radiation Radiation from Arbitrary Source |
11.1.3 | |||
| Monday 11/2/2026 |
Lecture 28 |
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| Tuesday 11/3/2026 |
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Discussion 9 |
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| Wednesday 11/4/2026 |
Lecture 29 |
11.1.4 | |||
| Friday 11/6/2026 |
Lecture 30 Radiation Reaction |
11.2.1, 11.2.2 |
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| Monday 11/9/2026 |
Lecture 31 |
11.2.3 | |||
| Tuesday 11/10/2026 |
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Discussion 10 |
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| Wednesday 11/11/2026 |
No Lecture |
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| Friday 11/13/2026 |
Midterm 2 |
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| Monday 11/16/2026 |
Lecture 32 Examples |
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| Tuesday 11/17/2026 |
No Discussion |
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| Wednesday 11/18/2026 |
Lecture 33
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12.1.1, 12.1.2
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Assign HW9 due Nov 25, 2026 23:59 for 100% Nov 30, 2026 23:59 for 75% |
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| Friday 11/20/2026 |
Lecture 34 |
12.1.3, 12.1.4 |
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| Monday 11/23/2026 |
Fall Break (no class) |
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| Tuesday 11/24/2026 |
Fall Break (no section) |
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| Wednesday 11/25/2026 |
Fall Break (no class) | ||||
| Friday 11/27/2026 |
Fall Break (no class) |
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| Monday 11/30/2026 |
Lecture 35 Examples |
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| Tuesday 12/1/2026 |
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Discussion 11 |
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| Wednesday 12/2/2026 |
Lecture 36 |
12.2.1, 12.2.2, 12.2.3, | Assign HW10 due Dec 9, 2026 23:59 for 100% |
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| Friday 12/4/2026 |
Lecture 37 Relativistic dynamics |
12.2.4 | |||
| Monday 12/7/2026 |
Lecture 38 Relativitic Electrodynamics |
12.3 | |||
| Tuesday 12/8/2026 |
Discussion 12 |
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Wednesday 12/9/2026 |
Lecture 39 Relativistic Electrodynamics Last day of instruction |
12.3 | |||
| Thursday 12/10/2026 |
Reading Day |
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| Monday |