A Student's Guide to Maxwell's Equations

A Student's Guide #1

by Daniel Fleisch

Gauss's law for electric fields, Gauss's law for magnetic fields, Faraday's law, and the Ampere Maxwell law are four of the most influential equations in science. In this guide for students, each equation is the subject of an entire chapter, with detailed, plain language explanations of the physical meaning of each symbol in the equation, for both the integral and differential forms. The final chapter shows how Maxwell's equations may be combined to produce the wave equation, the basis for the electromagnetic theory of light. This book is a wonderful resource for undergraduate and graduate courses in electromagnetism and electromagnetics. A website hosted by the author at www.cambridge.org/9780521701471 contains interactive solutions to every problem in the text as well as audio podcasts to walk students through each chapter.

Genres: Physics, Science, Mathematics, Nonfiction, Textbooks, Reference, Engineering

142 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2007

About the author

Prof. Dan Fleisch short biography
Dan Fleisch is a Professor in the Department of Physics
at Wittenberg University, where he specializes in
electromagnetics and space physics. He is the author of
the internationally best-selling book A Student’s Guide to
Maxwell’s Equations, published by Cambridge
University Press in January 2008 and already in its 12th printing. This book has been
translated into Japanese, Korean, and Chinese. Dr. Fleisch is also the author of A
Student’s Guide to Vectors and Tensors, published by Cambridge Press in 2011, and A
Student’s Guide to the Mathematics of Astronomy, to be published in September of 2013.
He is currently under contract with Cambridge Press for A Student’s Guide to Waves,
which will be published in 2014. Fleisch is also the co-author with the late Prof. John
Kraus of The Ohio State University of the McGraw-Hill textbook Electromagnetics with
Applications.
Prof. Fleisch has published technical articles in the IEEE Transactions, The Journal of
Atmospheric and Terrestrial Physics, and Microwave Journal, and has presented more
than a dozen professional papers on topics related to high-speed microwave
instrumentation and radar cross-section measurement. He has been a regular contributor
of science commentary to PBS station WYSO of Yellow Springs, and in 2006 he
appeared in the documentary "The Dayton Codebreakers" shown on Public
Television. In 2009 he was the first U.S. citizen to receive an Arthur Award from Stuart
McLean of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Prof. Fleisch was named Outstanding Faculty Member at the Wittenberg Greek
scholarship awards in 2000, and in 2002 he won the Omicron Delta Kappa award for
Excellence in Teaching. In 2003 and 2005 he was recognized for Faculty Excellence and
Innovation by the Southwestern Ohio Council for Higher Education (SOCHE), and in
2004 he received Wittenberg’s Distinguished Teaching Award, the university’s highest
faculty award.
In November of 2010 Prof. Fleisch was named the Ohio Professor of the Year by the
Carnegie Foundation and the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education.
In August of 2013 Prof. Fleisch was named one of the Top 25 Science, Technology,
Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Professors in Ohio.
Fleisch received his B.S. in Physics from Georgetown University in 1974 and his M.S.
and Ph.D. in Space Physics and Astronomy from Rice University in 1976 and 1980,
respectively.

Reviews

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A pure joy to read. Recommend it heartily. This book is a very easy to read for folks w/a physics background and am definitely convinced that Msr. Fleisch is one uber pedagogical dude! Good job, Dan!

[Inga · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a gem! Daniel Fleisch does not only brilliantly explain Maxwell equations, but also delves into all the relevant physics around them. So many headscratchers from my Electromagnetics lectures became so much clearer thanks to this wonderful guide!

[Kamran · Rating 5 out of 5]

It has explained the maxwell's equations amazingly and simply. He has don really good job and I recommend it strongly for undergraduate and graduate students(I'm a graduate student). It's concise but gives you the notion to solve broad range of problem. also it's only 130 pages. Surprisingly, it has been republished five times only in one year!

[Rita · Rating 5 out of 5]

Divergence and Stokes theorem explained beautifully.

Derivation of Maxwell's Equations in matter done exceptionally.

Thank you.

[Andrew Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A recommended text for all those who want to understand well the Maxwell's equations. Contains an in-depth explanation of the most relevant features of each equation. The material is divided into five sections, the first four dealing with the Maxwell's laws. There, each chapter starts with an explanation of all the components of the discussed equation, and then step by step one can learn how they have been derived. Both integral and differential forms of each equation are discussed. To improve the comprehension each chapter contains a set of problems for the user to solve. The author's website contains additional material and solutions to the listed problems.

The fifth chapter discusses how Maxwell's equations led to formulating an electromagnetic field wave equation. This is also presented in an easy step by step way. Additionally, we learn how one can convert each of the Maxwell equations from their integral to differential format.

An appendix presents how Maxwell's equations are affected when the electromagnetic waves propagate in matter.

In summary, I have tried many text books on this topic but none of them was so clear and effective in learning about this so important subject. Greatly recommended.

[Heureka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good for developing intuition on the subject. Not mathematically challenging, therefore accessible which is also true for the exercises. They don't require any further methods than the ones introduced by worked out examples in the text and are generally very easy.

[Michael Grizer (He-Him) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the perfect example of how you should write an introductory book on any math topic. Fleisch does an amazing job explaining every term and operator, along with what they mean in practice.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

This text was an excellent supplement to my undergraduate electricity and magnetism course, and was very helpful in my studying for the physics GRE. Detailed explanations of each term and operator in Maxwell's equations are useful in understanding the physical situation the equation describes, not just how to plug in variables. I wanted my entire intro undergrad E&M book to be this clear!

[Tariq Al Refaie · Rating 4 out of 5]

For nanoengineering point of view , it's more than good enough ..
but in electrical engineering point of view .. not good enough

In general .. it is a very good introduction to Maxwell's equations

[Hib · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simple and clear book of Maxwell's equations, this reference for those who want to understand more deeply the mechanism of the spread of electromagnetic waves along with Griffith's book .highly recommended for undergraduate.

[Kent Sibilev · Rating 4 out of 5]

I quite enjoyed this short and concise introduction to the Maxwell equations presented in a layman’s terms.

[William Schram · Rating 5 out of 5]

James Clerk Maxwell developed Maxwell's Equations back in 1865. The first sentence is a lie, but Maxwell did collect the equations under one umbrella. As a whole, these four equations define all electromagnetic phenomena.

A Student's Guide to Maxwell's Equations is a book by Daniel A. Fleisch. The book explains each equation, expanding them and showing what each symbol represents. The equations all have images showing an artistic representation of the phenomena. Furthermore, the book gets right to the point. There is little fluff content.

Whether you are a graduate student or an undergraduate student, you can benefit from reading this book. Maybe you aren't in a program at all, and you enjoy learning. I read books for fun, so I liked this one very much.

The one downside to the book is its brevity. It is short, and maybe you want a more in-depth look at the equations. Perhaps a book with more practice problems would work best. A Student's Guide to Maxwell's Equations works best as a supplement.

Thanks for reading my review, and see you next time.

[ESNR · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant presentation with clear explination. Maxwell's equations are explained in simple language and related terminalogy discussed in depth. D.Fisher provided an on line support for each chapter in the form of podcast and online solutions for unsolved problems in the chapter.

The book is completely dedicated for Maxwell's equations which is suitable for all types of audience from graduates to undergraduate students. The book start with Gauss's Law for electric fields and magnetic fields.The Faraday's Law and Ampere-Maxwell law. The laws are discussed both in integral and differential forms with suitable applications. The final chapter is development of wave equation from Maxwell's equation.

I strongly recomend the book for students who are willing to learn Electromagnetics where Maxwell's equations are starting point.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like physics. I love electricity & magnetism. I revere Maxwell's Equations! I don't recommend this as a starter book for Maxwell's equations. Just read a typical high school physics textbook that does not shy away from Maxwell (AP text, w/ calculus). E&M culminates with Maxwell.
Now that you've met Maxwell's Equations, learn their depth by this book, aimed at the student.

[Daniela Santos · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a simple, straight to the point way to review or learn Maxwell's equations. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to someone who has never taken a Calculus or some sort of Electromagnetism course in the sense that I was able to read it quite well because some concepts were already known to me. Anyway, I will for sure keep it for future reference

[Cliff]

Not bad. A little verbose, and pedestrian, especially after reading Schey, "Div, Grad & Curl," first. But, a good and complete explanation of the concepts with heuristic arguments given for the derivations of Maxwell's equations.

[Amr Elseweifi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exceptional pedagogy.

[Wu Taichi · Rating 5 out of 5]

對於馬克士方程式的講解非常簡單明瞭，一些重要的概念就算數學不熟悉也能夠清楚了解，不錯的一本書！

[Gregor Mathieson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really great way to build an intuition for Maxwell's equations.

[Shreyes · Rating 5 out of 5]

It lives up to its name. Very readable and insightful. If you are reading it make sure you check out the companion website too.

[Joakim Laksman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very clear and pedagogical book that explains Maxwells equations.

[Lyna]

Nishan qawed

[arthur garcia · Rating 5 out of 5]

literally saved my life during college years.

[Nadvornix · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wanted to use it as an short technical textbook of electromagnetism. But it is a bit too focused for that. But still - it is great at what it is trying to do.

[Denizhan Tiras · Rating 4 out of 5]

👍

[Nick Black · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amazon 2008-10-24. I've heard this does for EMag what Div, Grad, Curl and All That did for vector and manifold calculus, in which case it mustn't be passed up. I'd like to think I can pimp EMag well enough whenever it comes up, but I've never entered into full grokkage thereof in the way I have thermo and quantum (due to unrigorous early introductions, I think). That'd be nice to change.

Eh, I read this Saturday morning while listening to the GT game on the radio...it's good coverage, but nothing one wouldn't realize oneself after pairing a thorough grounding in the surface calculus with a rigorous EMag course. The best aspect, by far, is the advanced nature of the problem sets and their detailed, clear solutions; Fleisch understands and conveys especially the importance of complex surfaces in the context of Gauss's laws for electric and magnetic flux (something I first realized when working the MIT OpenCourseware problem sets while taking EMag at GT).

[Fred Kohn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unlike most reviewers, I barely understand what derivatives and integrals are, let alone how to use them! I have no formal training in physics whatsoever. Yet I was able to extract a great deal from this marvelously clear explanation of these foundational laws. True, I wasn't able to read it in a Saturday morning like one reviewer. It was more like 5 pages at a time followed by putting it down to clear my aching head. My only complaint is that I couldn't find the promised step by step explanations of the solutions to the problems on the book's website. But since that complaint is about the website, my five star rating for the book stands.

[Abd Rsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

من الرائع جداً دراسة هذا المرجع لمن يريد ان يفهم بشكل أعمق ألية انتشار الامواج الكهرومغناطيسية في الكون.
استغرقني دراسته 13 ساعة و 51 دقيقة، ولكني لا اجد هذا الزمن كثيراً على هذا الكتاب لما فيه من معلومات مذهلة وربط رائع للطبيعة الفيزيائية مع القوانين الرياضية بشكل لا يستحق سوى أعظم الشكر والتقدير لكاتبه Daniel Fleisch وللعظماء والعمالقة الذين اسسو هذا العلم من مايكل فارداي و جيمس كلارك ماكسويل والكثيرين...

"light is an electromagnetic disturbance propagated through the field according to electromagnetic laws" ~ James Clerk Maxwell ~ 1864

[Steve Bedford · Rating 4 out of 5]

A decent review, but had I not had physics 2 previously, I would have been completely lost. I had a really great professor for Physics 2, so I found myself wishing the author would have made similar points.

Overall, a good review and a good quick guide for when I don't want to go through my old lecture notes.

[Rick · Rating 5 out of 5]

I should admit in front that I wanted to understand this for a long time but didn't have the math. That's what is so great about what the author has done: he teaches you the math while teaching you the physical relationships. I dreamed about these equations for months after reading it. So worth the time.