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The Electromagnetic Field
Directed to advanced undergraduates in physics or electrical engineering, this comprehensive text covers electric and magnetic fields, electromagnetic theory, and related topics, including relativity. Each section includes worked examples and 15 to 25 problems, with solutions for odd-number problems only. 1975 edition.
- GenresPhysics
768 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1988
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November 20, 2020
I guess I was expecting something more Maxwellian, but the discussion of Maxwell's contribution to EM theory was limited almost to the very last chapter. This was almost entirely geometric in nature, with endless discussion of the direction of electric and magnetic fields under various (typically ideal, that is to say imaginary) conditions. As an electronics hobbyist, I found it overall useful in fleshing out my understanding of more abstruse concepts, but of limited applicability to what I actually do with circuitry. For the electronics student, it does provide a very basic treatment of the standard passive circuit elements (resistors, capacitors, inductors) and their operations under various electromagnetic conditions.
It does raise an interesting point, though: that the interplay between magnetism and electricity is a matter of the relative motion between the sources of the fields; to an observer at rest with respect to one source, its field simply doesn't exist. This simultaneous existence / non-existence of a field is the paradox that Einstein set out to explain in his first electrodynamic theory, as published in the paper "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies" (which most of us will better know as "Special Relativity"). The relativistic treatment of EM comes fairly late in the book, presumably because of all the necessary groundwork.
This is an extraordinarily mathy tome, for the hardcore physics nerd or college student only.
It does raise an interesting point, though: that the interplay between magnetism and electricity is a matter of the relative motion between the sources of the fields; to an observer at rest with respect to one source, its field simply doesn't exist. This simultaneous existence / non-existence of a field is the paradox that Einstein set out to explain in his first electrodynamic theory, as published in the paper "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies" (which most of us will better know as "Special Relativity"). The relativistic treatment of EM comes fairly late in the book, presumably because of all the necessary groundwork.
This is an extraordinarily mathy tome, for the hardcore physics nerd or college student only.
Displaying 1 of 1 review