Principles of electrostatics. Electrical
current. Circuit laws. Measurement of
physical quantities of e.m. nature and
instruments for that purpose. Magnetic
field. AC circuits. Error theory. Laboratory
experiments: measurements with a
voltage divider, impedance measurements with AC bridges, measurements on resonant circuits, measurement of the
Earth’s magnetic field with a Hall probe.
G. Poggi: “Esperimenti di elettricità e
magnetismo” and other materials. All the texts are
downloadable at
http://studenti.fisica.unifi.it/~a_perego
Learning Objectives
Knowledge acquired:
Measurement of physical quantities of
e.m. nature
Competence acquired:
Analysis of DC and AC circuits.
Knowledge of instruments for the
measurements of e.m. physical quantities
(voltmeter, ammeter, oscilloscope) and of its correct use. Upgraded knowledge of error theory.
Skills acquired (at the end of the
course):
Set-up of electrical circuits. Planning
(choice of method and instruments) and
execution of measurements of e.m.
physical quantities.
Prerequisites
Courses required: Physics laboratory I
Teaching Methods
Total hours of the course (including
the time spent in attending lectures,
seminars, private study, examinations,
etc...): 150
Contact hours for: Lectures (hours): 40
Contact hours for: Laboratory-field/
practice (hours): 12
Intermediate examinations:
Further information
Office hours the preferred contact
methods are email or direct online
connection. Personal encounters
available upon previous Agreement.
Website
http://studenti.fisica.unifi.it/~a_perego/
Type of Assessment
Individual practical test in laboratory,
followed by an oral exam
Course program
Electrostatics. Conducting and dielectric
materials. Coulomb’s law. Electric field.
Gauss theorem. Electrical potential.
Capacity and capacitors. Energy stored in a capacitor. Electrical current. Current
density. Continuity equation. Ohm’s law.
Resistivity and resistors. Power associated
to a bipolar device. Ideal and real voltage
generators. Current generators.
Kirchhoff’s laws of circuits. Analysis of
circuits. Linear circuits and their
features.Thévenin’s theorem. Power in
DC circuits. RC circuit. Magnetic induction field in the stationary and quasi-stationary case. Lorentz force. Ampère’s theorem.
E.m. induction law. Mutual and
autoinduction. Inductors.RL circuit.
Alternate quantities. RMS value. AC
circuits. Method of complex impedances.
Power in AC circuits. Average power.
Resonant circuits. AC bridges. Hall effect.
Measurement errors. Sistematic errors.
Statistical errors. Statistical distributions
with one or more variables. Parameters of a distribution. Independence and
correlation of variables. Correlation
matrix. Sampling. Estimators and their
properties. Estimators for the mean and
standard deviation of a distribution.
General formula of error propagation.
Theory of the Deprez-d’Arsonval
galvanometer. Statics and dynamics of
the galvanomenter. Basics of ballistic
galvanometer. Measurements with a
current integrator. Moving-coil
instruments. Digital multimeters. Cathode
ray tube oscilloscope. Working of the
cathode ray tube. Use of the oscilloscope.
Sampling oscilloscope (basics).
Potentiometric method. Kelvin-Varley
voltage divider. Experiments in laboratory:
measurements with the potentiometric
method, impedance measurements with
AC bridges, measurements on resonant
circuits, measurement of Earth’s magnetic field by means of a Hall probe.