Physics Complements for Biology students

First module

• Cartesian and polar space coordinate systems vector algebra, scalar and vector product, properties of vectors under orthogonal coordinate transformations.
• dynamics of material points and of multibodysystems
• Lagrangian formalism
• conservation laws single and coupled oscillators (using complex exponential techniques)

Second module

• central forces
• rigid body dynamics

• Coulomb's Law, electrostatic force and electricfield; Gauss Law (integral and differential formulation); circulation of the electric field and definition of electric potential. Dipole field. The unicity theorem. Electrostatic energy.
• Conductors, equipotential surfaces. Method of images for the infinite conducting plane and for the conducting sphere. Capacitors. Electrostatic energy of a capacitor and energy density of the electric field. Dielectrics (hints).

Third module

• Electric current, continuity law. Simplified Drude model explaining local formulation of Ohm's law.
• Charge/discharge of a capacitor, Kirchhoff's laws for electric circuits.
• Magnetostatics: Lorentz force on a point charge and on a circuit segment. Biot-Savart law. Static Maxwell laws for the magnetic field. Magnetic field as a pseudo-vector; difference wrt the electric field for highly symmetric configurations.
• Faraday's law, inductance. LC and RLC circuits. Energy density of the magnetic field.
• Ampère-Maxwell's law, displacement current,wave equation for fields. Poynting vector. Plane waves.