Rating: 
Summary: Great Book for Junior/Senior Undergrad Course
Review: I orignially wrote a review for this book as an undergraduate. In that review, I credited Griffiths with a knack for presenting information in a clever and entertaining way. I still believe this is true. At the time, I also said that Griffiths included precise and complete examples. Looking back, I no longer believe this is true. When I first started using this book, I was under the impression that Griffiths had discovered a method in the way of writing textbooks that was totally superior to all other authors of similar background. Now, after several years of using Griffiths as a reference, I find that his books serve as a wonderful resource for refreshing one's memory, however they lack a certain comprehensive quality that would make them a solid reference text. I am now a student of John David Jackson, that legendary author with the impossible text (Classical Electrodynamics), and the astounding thoroughness of his book dwarfs the Griffiths E&M text by comparison. Valuable information in the Griffiths text is often left as an exercise. This is very frustrating when one is searching for solutions to much more advanced problems. I contacted Dr. Griffiths and asked him if it would be possible for me to obtain a solutions manual to both his E&M and his Quantum texts, but he informed me that I could not obtain these manuals unless I was an instructor at the insistence of the publisher (Prentice Hall). This is unfortunate. All in all, the text is a fantastic book for the undergraduate, and a helpful resource for the graduate student. The book is a valuable resource for the intermediate or slightly advanced undergraduate physics student, and I encourage instructors at the undergraduate level to use the Griffiths text.
Rating: 
Summary: Cool and informal
Review: This introductory book on Electrodynamics is one of the coolest and informal books I have ever read in my student life. I have used the book as an undergraduate and I still use it even now in my post-graduate study. The physical insights offered by the author in almost all the chapters are invaluable and interesting.Problems in Electrodynamics can be mathematically very demanding, but the book stands on it's own feet and the mathematical background required to use the book is more or less sufficient. The exercises are well thought-out /collected,but a major source of irritation is the lack of solutions or even answers for that matter. Dr Griffiths should understand that an elementary treatise such as this is used by a good proportion of the student community (who do not always have contact with a good teacher) for self-study. Such students need someone to hold his hands and be led into such an interesting area of classical physics. Moreover, when Landau can offer offer solutions to the problems in his Course of Theoretical Physics, Dr Griffiths shouldn't mind giving hints and solutions to the problems. If the author doesn't want to share the solutions in the textbook, a solutions manual should be sold in the market. However, a solution manual is available,from the publishers, but only for teachers who should be able to solve the problems on their own. Even many teachers have privately admitted the problems are beyond their capacity without suitable hints. So, how can the author expect students to solve most of the problems on their own? I have seen many students not following the book, precisely due to lack of solutions , and due to that I can only give four stars out of five. Also, the author needs to dispense with the idea of introducing new concepts in the exercises. But if one forgets that, I would say, the book is surely raccommended to beginners and a good book to start with before graduating to Jackson.
Rating:
Summary: The best around.
Review: This book is wonderful. I used it for a 1 year junior-level course at UERJ and I can say it was perfect. I really don't understand the people that wrote bad reviews about this book. First of all, they seem not to understand that this book is AN INTRODUCTION. There exist excellents books on advanced material (Jackson, Schwinger...), but I doubt anyone has begun with those. Some of those reviewers say that the math in the book is too elementary. So what? This is a EM course, not a Mathematical Physics one. If you want to struggle with Bessel or others horribles special functions, get Griffiths problems and change them by yourself so that the eigenfunctions are those you want. If you want Green's function, go ahead, you can solve lots of Griffiths' problems with it. But this is not the point. This is a physics book, and the discussion on the fenomena are very good. In my opinion the math used is that you do need to understand the physics. Other constant complaint is the lack of problem solutions saying that without them you cannot know if you're learning. Well, particularly, it didn't bother me. The problems are very well selected and cover a wide range of difficulty. The easy ones should tell you if you're doing well. And, despite of what others have said, the problems make this a very good book for self-studying. Finally, I don't understand the complaints about Griffiths' colloquial style. Some other (well celebrated) authors share the same informal writing style and everybody call them genious. Actually, this makes the book very pleasant to read thorough leaving the hard work to the problems.
Rating:
Summary: Great for introduction AND reference.
Review: I am a graduate student now and I still use Griffiths on a regular basis. It not only gives LOTS of examples, but also paints an accurate physical picture BEFORE writing a single equation. The whole first chapter is devoted to the mathematics that you (were supposed to have) learned typically in a third semester Calc course. My instructor did not cover the chapter explicitly, but reffered to it often.
This book is great.
Rating:
Summary: The Undergrad E&M Standard for Greatness.
Review: Interesting. Insightful. Conceptually Complete. Great Mathematical Notation. Great Explanations. All of these and more could be said about David Griffiths' incredible book on Introductory E&M. David's writing style is next to none, the text is never boring and extremely insightful. The various chapters are structured extremely well. It "flows" extrodinarily well from section to section. He conveys very well the enormous and far reaching applicability of the science of E&M.
Griffiths often uses physical arguments by analogy instead of mathematical rigour to convey many physical ideas. He treats the math like it should be treated in physics, as a language to work with ideas, not as a hindrance blocking their meaning. His mathematical notation is so completely natural and reader friendly, you get used to it very quickly. The examples are insightful and the problems, while challenging, are well thought out. Every diamond has its fault, and this textbook's fault is its lack of a student solutions manual and answers in the back. However, the quality of writing GREATLY overwealms this fault, hence the 5 star rating. With this textbook, a good instructor, and a little hard work, you WILL learn E&M.
Rating:
Summary: Don't know electrodynamics? BUY THIS BOOK
Review: If you have never used a textbook by Griffiths, then stop wasting your time and buy this one. I am a current physics graduate student who did NOT use this textbook during undergraduate study and I am left wondering why...
In Introduction to Electrodynamics, the reader is expected to have a basic understanding of vector operations, and a firm grasp of calculus. Beyond this, the text clearly and accurately explains the fundamentals of electrodynamics, from steady-state electric fields (up to the concept of multipole expansions), to steady-state magnetic field topics, and even more advanced topics. The entire book is increadibly readable and contains many pre-worked examples of pivitol problems.
Any undergraduate student of Physics should not be without this text. If you are a graduate student currently hacking your way through Jackson's Electrodynamics, you ALSO should not be without Griffith's E&M. This book is without a doubt, the best introduction to electromagnetic phenomena around.
Rating:
Summary: The Undergrad E&M Standard for Greatness.
Review: Interesting. Insightful. Conceptually Complete. Great Mathematical Notation. Great Explanations. All of these and more could be said about David Griffiths' incredible book on Introductory E&M. David's writing style is next to none, the text is never boring and extremely insightful. The various chapters are structured extremely well. It "flows" extrodinarily well from section to section. He conveys very well the enormous and far reaching applicability of the science of E&M.
Griffiths often uses physical arguments by analogy instead of mathematical rigour to convey many physical ideas. He treats the math like it should be treated in physics, as a language to work with ideas, not as a hindrance blocking their meaning. His mathematical notation is so completely natural and reader friendly, you get used to it very quickly. The examples are insightful and the problems, while challenging, are well thought out. Every diamond has its fault, and this textbook's fault is its lack of a student solutions manual and answers in the back. However, the quality of writing GREATLY overwealms this fault, hence the 5 star rating. With this textbook, a good instructor, and a little hard work, you WILL learn E&M.
Rating:
Summary: PERFECT
Review: I have used this book for my graduate studies and i have to comment that undoubtly is the only book for a good introduction in classical electrodynamics.If only had more exercises solved....
Rating:
Summary: Overall, a good book
Review: The informal style is, and Griffiths is great at addressing the questions that are sure to come up when reading the text. Griffiths also does a great job of connecting similar/related topics. The notation for various distances, etc is consistant throughout the book, even in unrelated topics, which is very helpfull. It is also nice that the problems are spread out within the chapters, so they appear within the material they cover. Some of the less important steps are skipped in derivations, etc, so it is best used in conjection with class notes (I am not a great note taker, so that caused me some trouble, hence the four stars). Some of the problems require a clear understanding of the skipped steps. The problems can become frustrating when necessary information is missing or not thourouly explained, but they are well designed to build a solid understanding of the material.
Rating: 
Summary: Very bad for me
Review: no answers in the back. skip steps in examples, the author is trying to punk you. I don't like this book. They are for instructors. There is a soultion manual for instructor but not for students. You will waste a lot of time if you use this book.
there a lot of instructors use this book because they can get the solution manual and makes their life easier.
well his quantum mechanics is the one of the best
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