What are the best books to master E&M ?

[FancyNut]

What are the best books to master E&M !?

I've been looking around for extra material, another other then knight's next which we're using, but i can't settle on what text to buy. They’re so expensive too.

Here are the links for the two I hear most about.

This one covers way more than my text at the beginning and I have no idea about vector calculus so I doubt it'll help.




This one seems great but it doesn’t have problem solutions.





Thank you for any help/recommendations. Oh and I'm not sure if this belongs in this forum but it's the closest I guess. :p

 

[mewmew]

I have the Feynman 3 volume set, to be honest as a student I am not particularly thrilled with it, expecially the topics on E&M. It doesn't cover as much material as a textbook but goes more indepth into what it does cover. It doesn't have problems like a textbook either and doesn't really go over how to solve or work through problems. Perhaps if I was not just starting out and wanted to just gain a bit more information on stuff I already knew it would be better, but I don't recommend this if you are just starting out and trying to learn the material.

 

[FancyNut]

I really want to get the Purcell one but the fact that it has no solutions to problems is holding me back.

Man I need something to lean this stuff from. My professor is HORRIBLE.

 

[asvani]

If you can understand Foundations of Electromagnetism by Reitz, Milford and Christy, then you'll have no problem with undergraduate EM.

Griffiths' book is not really as good as some people claim it to be. It makes for rather poor preparation for graduate electrodynamics.

 

[gnome]

I like Serway & Beichner's text; 5th Edition, publ. in 2000, is what I have. It has very good explanations and problem-solving examples, and of course many exercises.

It seems like there are some pretty amazing buys here:
http://half.ebay.com/cat/buy/prod.c..._idEQ1856AMPmeta_idEQ1&aid=1932276&pid=536211

I know there is a newer edition (that shouldn't matter to you) so maybe that accounts for the low prices listed for the 5th ed. Or, maybe some of them are just listing the wrong book. If you buy it, contact the seller first & make sure the book they are selling is the 5th edition with chapters 1 - 39, 1288 pages plus the appendices.

 

[FancyNut]

Thanks for the replies. I got the griffith book. My wallet is crying.