So far in this course we have primarily talked about static electric fields (Weeks 1 - 3), how static electric fields apply to circuits (Weeks 4 - 6), and static magnetic fields (Weeks 7 - 9). We have primarily been treating these phenomena as independent (i.e. only looking at the electric field or only looking at the magnetic field). However, as you may have guessed, these ideas are not completely separate. For example, let's say that you had a positive charge moving down and a negative charge moving up. There would be an electric force from the negative charge on the positive charge. However, there would ALSO be a magnetic force from the negative charge on the positive charge because the positive charge is moving through the magnetic field produced by the negative charge.

Now that we have the basics down for both electric and magnetic fields, we will start to consider the cases where charges feel an effect from both electric and magnetic interactions. (We will also return to this idea again at the end of the course.) This page of notes serves as a reminder of the important concepts about static electric fields and static magnetic fields that we will be building on for the rest of the semester.