Customer Reviews

Classical Electromagnetism

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm a physics grad student who has been struggling with J.D. Jackson's book for a semester now. In my endless search for anything and everything to help explain Jackson's 'explanations,' I came across this fantastic book at the library. Very new, published February 2005, and quite up to date. His explanations are exceedingly clear, derivations easy to follow (though not watered down any), and mathematics precise. He covers all the standard topics- Green's functions, Legendre and Bessel equations, gauge transformations, waveguides, ... all the stuff at the heart of any grad-level E&M course. He even does so at the level of Jackson. But somehow he manages to avoid the 13 pages of math for each concept that Jackson introduces.

I'd strongly recommend this book to any fellow student, whether seeing the material for the first time or studying for quals. You should note, however, that Franklin chooses to use cgs throughout (something which I appreciate- I share his view that SI bogs down the equations and theories in E&M). For what it's worth...

Initially, Franklin introduces each topic in the most general way, and proceeds to explain the "special cases," so as not to overwhelm the learner immediately.
His approach is quite straightforward, which helps one to gain an understanding of the underlying principles without being drowned by unnecessary information.

It's a great book. I totally recommend it to whoever wants to know more about the Physics of Electromagnetism. It explain everything beautifully by using the main concepts.

I bought this book because it is the textbook in my course of Electromagnetism Theory(PHYS809). It is a nice book, though a little bit advanced --- much mathematics in this book.