Physics 2 for Students of Mechanical Engineering
Course # 203-1-1721
Course Syllabus
Instructor:
Prof. Dan Rich
Bldg. 54, Room 210, Office Hours: Tuesday 14-15
Lectures:
Building 26, Room 6 (Kreitman Lecture Hall), Thursday, 13:00-16:00
Course content:
The course addresses the following traditional topics in elementary physics that are
suitable for students in engineering.
The following topics will be presented according to the approximate schedule below.
Some topics may overlap from one week to the next. The topics should be studied in
parallel by reading the text book (Halliday & Resnick) with the chapters, as indicated:
Week
Topic
1
Charge and matter, Conductors, Insulators, Coulomb's Law, The Electric
Force, and Electric Field (Ch. 22)
2
The Electric Field of point charges, The Electric Dipole, Charge density
and distributions in one, two, and three dimensions (Ch. 23)
3
Gauss’s Law, The Electric Potential and Potential Energy (Chs. 24 and 25)
4
Capacitance, Charge Storage, Dielectrics, Capacitors in series and parallel
(Ch. 26)
5
Current, Resistance, Electromotive Force (EMF), Ohm's Law, DC voltage,
Batteries (Ch. 27)
6
Resistors in Series and Parallel, Electric Circuits, RC circuits, Capacitive
time constants for charging and discharging (Ch. 28)
7
The Magnetic Field, Magnetic Poles, The Lorentz Force, Motion of
charges in a magnetic field (Ch. 29)
8
The Hall Effect, Magnetic force on a wire with current, Torque on a
current loop, Magnetic Dipole Moment, Potential Energy (Ch. 29)
9
Magnetic Field of a current, The Biot-Savart Law (Ch. 30)
10
Ampere's Law, Solenoids, Toroids (Ch. 30)
11
Faraday’s Law of Induction, Lenz' Law, Induced electric fields and
currents, Generators (Ch. 31)
12
Magnetic Properties of Matter, Inductance, LR, LC and L-R-C circuits,
Electromagnetic oscillations, damped and forced oscillations (Ch. 31)
Note: PowerPoint Files (mainly in Hebrew) will be shown in the lectures and provided on
the Physics 2 course web-site at the beginning of the semester. Students should
print out and prepare a personal notebook of the PowerPoint slides at the beginning
of the semester. The notebook should be brought to lecture to assist in note taking.
The lectures may contain additional material, beyond that which is found in
the PowerPoint slides.
The course grade will be based on the final exams in the first two test periods (‫ ב‬,‫)מועד א‬.

Homework assignments and solutions will appear each week on the website.
Homework will not be collected or graded. The final exam will largely reflect the
lecture material, homework assignments, and tirgul.

The final exam will be composed of multiple choice questions (American test),
requiring numerical computation and use of appropriate concepts and formulas
that will be taught throughout this semester.

Each student will be allowed to bring a single page (A4) sheet of paper containing
formulas in his/her own handwriting. Both sides of the sheet may be used.
Photocopies of text, figures, and handwriting will not be permitted.
Prerequisite: Physics 1 for Mechanical Engineers (course # 203-1-1421) or Equivalent
Text: Halliday, Resnick, and Walker, Fundamentals of Physics, Part 2, 7th Ed.