Recommended E&M summer book for a soon to be EE student

[tamtam402]

Hello, I'm about to start university as an electrical engineer student, and I'd like to have a better grasp of the theory behind the stuff we'll see in the program. I've been through Cegep here ( I think it's the equivalent of the last high school year + the first University year in the United-States; it is considered post-secondary education and it is required to attend university).

I have followed Calc I, II, III, physics I, II and III, and linear algebra. The physics courses were lightly calculus based, physics II (E&M) being the one that required the most calculus.

However, if I were to attend university I would still have to take courses such as Electricity and magnetism, classical physics, etc., so these "post secondary" physics courses aren't physics undergrad courses (just making sure the CEGEP part doesn't confuse anyone).

I'm a very motivated student, I don't mind working harder to understand a more rigorous book (I plan to do exercises also) but since I have no idea about what undergrads actually start with, I don't want to "waste" hours in a book to find out it's too easy or too advanced for my level.

If you guys could list a book or 2 that would be good for what I'm looking for, that would be awesome :D

 

[cragar]

engineering electromagnetics by William Hayt is a pretty good book, And it goes into theory.

 

[jasonRF]

Some free resources can be found at:

http://farside.ph.utexas.edu/teaching.html

Here you will find Prof. Fitzpatrick has posted what are essentially free textbooks for introductory (fresh/soph US), intermediate (Jr/Sr in US) and graduate level. These are physics, not EE, but a casual look at some of his books indicates that they are pretty well written. And of course, free.

good luck,

jason

 

[hitmeoff]

You can try Div, Grad Curl and all that which will review vector calculus in the scope of simple Electrostatics.

I am not quite sure the level of depth that an EE major would go into in a junior level Engineering E&M course, but I'm pretty sure it won't go beyond the depth that a junior level physics E&M course would go into (which would be, essentially a theoretical E&M course).

So if you want to prepare for the worst, study up Div, Grad, Curl and All That, grab a good book on DE's that cover topics like separation of variables, Fourier's trick, etc in some depth (maybe Boas' Mathematical Methods for the Physical Sciences). Then give Griffith's Intro To Electrodynamics a shot.

If you can handle that book, I'm pretty sure you'll be able to handle anything an engineering E&M course is likely to throw at you (mind you, I took the junior level physics E&M course using this book and the course was extremely difficult), and even if you don't completely understand everything (which is totally fine, because most of us had a very tough time with this course and we had a professor and a T/A to help us through it), you will probably have a deeper understanding for the subject than most will in your EE class.

I am not trying to say that EE is easier than Physics, rather Physics majors cover the subject in more depth, theoretically than an EE major would. An EE E&M class would probably be more application based than theory based. In any case, being very sharp with your vector calculus and PDE's will probably be VERY VERY VERY helpful regardless if your class is theory or application based.

 

[rezeew]

I would recommend "Introduction to Electrodynamics" by David J. Griffiths as a great summer book for a soon-to-be electrical engineering student. This book is widely used in undergraduate level courses and provides a comprehensive understanding of electricity and magnetism. It also includes a lot of worked examples and practice problems, which will help you solidify your understanding of the topics. Additionally, it covers the necessary mathematical background, such as vector calculus and differential equations, which will be helpful for your future courses. Good luck in your studies!