Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 6-10 of 45
 Not so much... May 23, 2009
00 Physicist
4 out of 17 found this review helpful
I help teach an introductory class of electromagnetism. Albeit, the level at which the class is aimed is far lower than the material in this book; I thought that it would be a good reference. However, I was wrong. First off, the author uses odd notation. For those unfamiliar with the Maxwell Equations (and vectors in general) the author will likely confuse you. Anytime he wants to denote a multiplication, he uses the "X" symbol... which is reserved for the cross-product. Point of fact he uses that symbol both ways. Personally, I find the notational discrepancies distasteful.
Also, his explanations of what the equations mean are often misleading. I suppose that the point of the book is to attempt to capture the essentials of the Maxwell Equations, however, in that attempt I believe that he does an inadequate job in explanation. By and large, if someone wanted an overview of the Maxwell Equations, I would highly recommend "An Introduction to Electrodynamics" by David J Griffiths. Dr. Griffiths does an amazing job. However, Griffiths' book is a 'real' text book (and comes with a larger price) there is not a better introductory electromagnetism book.
 If only all texts books were written this way! May 16, 2009
Peeter Joot (Markham, Ontario, Canada)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is a great book, and contains the best introductory explanation of the physical significance of Maxwell's equations I have seen.
The focus of this text is to introduce the physics and not to focus on or distract the reader with unnecessary mathematics. It contains just enough of the mathematics to understand the concepts, but unlike layman books on physics that often skimp on the mathematics, this book does not attempt to omit any that is required to understand the physics. The reader will be well prepared for a more in depth, and mathematically thorough treatment after covering this material.
As each new symbol or concept is introduced it is explained thoroughly. If only all texts books were written this way!
In my opinion, this book is suitable for students of almost any level. It contains nice explanations of basic concepts such as dot product and line integral, but these can be skipped easily if desired due to the modular and well thought out layout. Even if you do not personally need to cover such basic concepts it is refreshing to read this treatment in its entirety because of how well sequenced and explained all such concepts are.
I liked the approach of starting with the integral form instead of the differential form. This is the opposite of how I learned these equations in my Engineering E&M course, and I felt this required less mathematics and abstraction to introduce the physical topics.
The podcasts associated with this text are also excellent, and complement the text nicely.
What the Schaum's outline of Electromagnetics should have been May 10, 2009
calvinnme (Fredericksburg, Va)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is an outstanding short little book on Maxwell's equations and what they mean, both qualitatively and quantitatively. It is a good book to go through if you have just finished a course on EM, or you can use it as a supplement as you go through such a course. The explanations are clear and to the point and the examples and problem sets are excellent. To me the definitive self-study textbook on the subject is Engineering Electromagnetics by Nathan Ida. It explains everything, including the math, from the beginning. If you have an incomprehensible text and an incomprehensible professor, both these books will see you through.
Also, note the MIT lectures of Professor Walter Lewin on electricity and magnetism in his Physics 8.02 class as posted on youtube. This student guide is so clear and coincides so well with what Prof. Lewin is teaching it almost seems like it was written by him.
At any rate I can't recommend these three resources: Dr. Lewin, this student guide, and the big text by Nathan Ida strongly enough. Even if you think you're an engineer who just wants to code or design FPGA's the rest of your professional life, do realize that electricity does come back to these basics and you should understand it.
Excellent Book! May 7, 2009
MasterBrewer (Utah)
Excellent book. Very well written and the audio podcasts are out of this world. I'm looking forward for more titles by this author
 Maxwell's Equations April 29, 2009
Edward Blomdahl (Cape Cod, MA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
If you want a solid, basic understanding of Maxwell's equations, this book will help. The author breaks down the material equation by equation and presents both the integral and differential forms. There are exercises in each chapter, and the answers are on the web with other material.
Showing reviews 6-10 of 45
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