Fundamentals of Applied Electromagnetics 2001 Media Edition (With CD-ROM)

Rating:
Summary: Slim book, can teach you many concepts
Review: Electromagnetics book

The lightest textbook in my backpack, but certainly not the emptiest. This high information-density volume contains a wealth of knowledge, examples, and fairly readable text about the subject - and the CD is actually helpful!

At the beginning of the semester I had no idea what material the electromagnetics class consisted of, but now at the end I can look back and see a large number of topics presented in a fairly logical progression. The book's modus operandi is: teach/review the underlying math concept, then use that math to tackle an electromagnetics problem. I enjoyed this approach a lot, though I agree with my professor that the order of presentation is a little questionable. We shuffled between chapters 3 and 4 so as not to dwell on pure math as much and instead deal with physical, practical problems. For example, instead of learning both divergence and curl simultaneously, we first learned divergence and then used it solve some problems involving Electric fields. Then we went back, learned curl, and applied it to different problems.

I was overwhelmed with the sheer variety of topics covered in this course. There seemed to be too many ways to do problems, and I couldn't get a good feel for when to use which method. The book's examples and explanations helped for homework sets, but come test time I usually knew three ways to solve it but wasn't sure which way would produce the proper result. In an hour testing situation, I don't have time to try out all three ways on every problem!

There must be a way to teach these concepts in a more targeted method, but I don't know how. I feel I have a good knowledge of the material from the book, though, and the CD's examples were very good. The CD showed step-by-step work for problems from the text, and had its own examples not in the book that did a good job demonstrating a concept. Don't throw away the CD!

The svelte size of this book impresses me, because it shows the author cared enough to trim his wordage to a reasonable level. This should keep students happy, both in their backpacks and their studying.

Rating:
Summary: Average
Review: I am a Senior in EE at the University of Florida in Gainesville, and I used this textbook in an introductory class in Electromagnetics. The equation tables with the relevant variants of parameters are VERY helpful. However, he diverges from simplicity too much. The proofs and derivations of some excessive equations make reading it very difficult. I give it an average rating since the subject can get very complicated very fast. You will learn from it, and so buy it if your instructor tells you to.

Rating:
Summary: Just the Facts Please
Review: I used this book for Electromagnetic Fields I & II at the University of Florida. The class was taught by Martin Uman, The world leader in lightning research. I can compare this book to a physics with calculus book. The reader is given the set-up and the general method for the solution, but not too much math. My teacher had a knack for the time domain...something this book does not address. However, this book did a good job explaining the fundamentals that one needed to complete assignments. The CD-ROM is a very good asset as well.

Rating:
Summary: Good, but No waveguides
Review: The book is easy to understand and comes with good examples of applications, yet it lacks a chapter in waveguides and it's too simple for two-semesters courses. The newer edition has more problems,and the CD-Rom which are useful.

Rating:
Summary: Good, but No waveguides
Review: The book is easy to understand and comes with good examples of applications, yet it lacks a chapter in waveguides and it's too simple for two-semesters courses. The newer edition has more problems,and the CD-Rom which are useful.

Rating:
Summary: Very complete, and concise.
Review: This book covers a good amount of material in a very concise and easy to understand way. I have found it very valable even after the class which used it, has ended. Explanations of the derived priciples are clear and it is easy to build upon them to solve more complex problems.

Rating:
Summary: Good reference but explanations too sparse
Review: This book is a good reference, but it has much to be desired as a textbook for a serious, college-level course in electromagnetics. The derivations leave out too many important details and the explanations of key concepts are sometimes sparse. Furthermore, the approach is primarily mathematical. The book could really be improved if more emphasis was placed on understanding the physics behind EM theory. Overall, I would recommend the book if you are looking for a concise reference book, but I would recommend that you look elsewhere for a thorough introduction to the material.

Rating:
Summary: Informative and easy to understand for students
Review: This electromagnetics book was easy to read and understand. Examples were explained well, and tables and graphs were provided to enhance understanding of the text.

Rating:
Summary: Worst EMF book ive seen
Review: This has got to be the worst book on EMF's I've ever seen. I had to borrow a number of other books on the topic to complete my work. The presentation of topics is awkward at best, and leaves much to be desired. A book that proposes to be teaching the fundamentals should do that, but this book just lists a smattering of facts about EMF's and wave propogation without any semblance of order or reason. Apart from the shoddy treatment of the material itself, the index appears to be for a completely separate book. Not one item listed in the index could be found within ten pages of the supposed location. There was an average of about plus or minus fifteen pages for most entries, and some weren't even in the book at all.