Electromagnetism, 2E

Rating:
Summary: Excelent Introductory Text
Review: I had to read this book cover to cover for E.M. class and I found it's layout and presentation very well done. Excelent review of magnetostatics, electrostatics, H & D fields, Maxwell's Eqns, etc. In conjuntion with E.M. Fields and Waves by Lorrain, provides all the necessary texts needed for undergradute courses in E.M.

Rating:
Summary: Readable, Enjoyable! Like Physics ought to be!
Review: The text is lucid in its presentation of what is often viewed as a difficult subject.

Starting with no more than a sound understanding of sixth form (high school) Mathematics and Physics, the authors proceed to underpin elementary concepts of electrostatics, simple circuits, and magnetism with the rigour and completeness demanded at University level. New mathematical ideas are introduced gently (so naturally, in fact, that the reader does not feel that (s)he is being asked to learn some new things!) and blended into the key Physical concepts.

The book accelerates through a whole lot of material and tacitly introduces the reader to Maxwell's Equations without calling them so. Only after all of the core physical concepts - Dielectrics, Steady Currents and Magnetic Fields, Ferromagnetism, Electromagnetism/Induction - have been covered, do the authors venture to integrate the mathematics into Maxwell's equations. This emphasis on the Physics (with the Mathematics working merely as a tool) works really well and is central to the readability of this book.

The latter chapters explore Transmission Lines, Electromagnetic Waves (which the mathematically inclined texts like to boast about as solutions of Maxwell's Equations), and the beginnings of Relativistic Electrodynamics.

All in all, an excellent, enjoyable book - highly recommended! Makes Physics fun!

Lastly, I might add that I was one of the "guinea pigs" at Manchester who benefited directly from the materials in this book and others in the Manchester Physics Series.