Fundamentals of Applied Electromagnetics (5th Edition) [Hardcover]

Fawwaz T. Ulaby (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0132413264 | ISBN-13: 978-0132413268 | Publication Date: September 10, 2006 | Edition: 5

Widely acclaimed both in the U.S. and abroad, this reader-friendly yet authoritative volume bridges the gap between circuits and new electromagnetics material. Ulaby begins coverage with transmission lines, leading readers from familiar concepts into more advanced topics and applications. Includes six new sections on Waveguides and Cavity Resonators, replacing the material on geometric optics in Chapter 8. Presents new Technology Briefs on relevant topics, connecting concepts in the book to everyday applications found in real life, such as liquid crystal displays, the laser, GPS, and x-ray tomography. Includes an interactive CD-ROM that allows readers to gain physical intuition about electromagnetics. A useful reference for engineers.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Bridging the gap between electric circuits and electromagnetics, this text leads students from familiar concepts into more advanced topics and applications. Earlier and heavier emphasis on dynamics permits coverage of practical applications in communication systems, radar, optics, and solid-state computers. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Back Cover

FEATURES/BENEFITS

NEW—Over 370 chapter-end problems. Offers users more opportunities to practice applications, and test their understanding of chapter concepts. NEW—Accompanying CD-ROM. Provides readers with complete sample solutions for 45 chapter-end problems selected from and identified in the text, and enables them to generate a high-quality print of Smith Chart for use with Logical organization—Begins coverage with transmission lines. Presents a natural bridge between familiar circuits material and new electromagnetics material. More emphasis on dynamics than statics. Unique coverage of optical fibers and imaging (Ch. 8). Gives the reader valuable material on optical fibers in wideband communication and optical imaging by mirrors and lenses. User-friendly approach. Explains and clarifies the physics by using math, and avoids lengthy derivations of theorems. Thorough verification of material. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall; 5 edition (September 10, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0132413264
• ISBN-13: 978-0132413268
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 8.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #252,413 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Slim book, can teach you many concepts, December 19, 2004

By 

Karl Becker (Iowa, USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Fundamentals of Applied Electromagnetics, 2004 Media Edition (Hardcover)

Electromagnetics book

The lightest textbook in my backpack, but certainly not the emptiest. This high information-density volume contains a wealth of knowledge, examples, and fairly readable text about the subject - and the CD is actually helpful!

At the beginning of the semester I had no idea what material the electromagnetics class consisted of, but now at the end I can look back and see a large number of topics presented in a fairly logical progression. The book's modus operandi is: teach/review the underlying math concept, then use that math to tackle an electromagnetics problem. I enjoyed this approach a lot, though I agree with my professor that the order of presentation is a little questionable. We shuffled between chapters 3 and 4 so as not to dwell on pure math as much and instead deal with physical, practical problems. For example, instead of learning both divergence and curl simultaneously, we first learned divergence and then used it solve some problems involving Electric fields. Then we went back, learned curl, and applied it to different problems.

I was overwhelmed with the sheer variety of topics covered in this course. There seemed to be too many ways to do problems, and I couldn't get a good feel for when to use which method. The book's examples and explanations helped for homework sets, but come test time I usually knew three ways to solve it but wasn't sure which way would produce the proper result. In an hour testing situation, I don't have time to try out all three ways on every problem!

There must be a way to teach these concepts in a more targeted method, but I don't know how. I feel I have a good knowledge of the material from the book, though, and the CD's examples were very good. The CD showed step-by-step work for problems from the text, and had its own examples not in the book that did a good job demonstrating a concept. Don't throw away the CD!

The svelte size of this book impresses me, because it shows the author cared enough to trim his wordage to a reasonable level. This should keep students happy, both in their backpacks and their studying.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Simple and Clear - Good Backup for Physics Majors, April 16, 2005

By 

physics major - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fundamentals of Applied Electromagnetics, 2004 Media Edition (Hardcover)

Good coverage of the basic concepts of E+M. I found this text very useful as a backup for Griffiths E+M (standard undergrad text for physics majors). The math is simple (not a legendre polynomial in sight) and the concepts are clear. The coverage of static fields in materials is especially easy to understand. You're not going to find the dielectric tensor covered here, just the basics layed out in an intuitive format.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Just throws equations at you, October 27, 2008

By 

I. Gurin - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Fundamentals of Applied Electromagnetics (5th Edition) (Hardcover)

The text is difficult to follow. The short-range organization is quite good, but the long-range organization is weak. Go to the next page and you will likely have a hard time figuring out how the material there relates to what you were just reading. Many good lectures use this kind of structure, but I find that it does not make a good textbook.

The text lacks coherent derivations. Ulaby just throws equations at you without linking them together strongly. For instance, the input impedance of a transmission line with an arbitrary load (arguably the most important relation in the entire chapter on transmission lines) is derived piecemeal over the course of several sections. The derivation really isn't hard, though - it could easily have been done in two pages. Ulaby does put nice blue boxes around the particularly important equations, but that doesn't help much.

I found the treatment too simple for an upper-division course. Ulaby "misses the forest for the trees" by dwelling on details that should be simple to an upper-division engineering student.