Classical Electrodynamics

ziad1985

The short version:I'm taking Classical electrodynamics this semester, I found out that I have this book:
Classical Electrodynamics by J.D.Jackson
Anyone know this book?Would it be a good choice to help me study?

robphy

Yes, many folks have studied from this text... some with fond memories.. others, not so fond.

Saketh

It's one of those texts that can be either good or bad, but you're probably stuck with it since it's so widely used.

From my experience with the text, I can safely say that it's not made for self-study. You will find yourself often looking to outside resources for clarification on certain derivations/concepts that Jackson omits. Also, some of the problems are very difficult (but that's what this forum is for, right? )

ziad1985

I'm not really stuck with it, I just have it...
It's not for self study, Like I said I just started taking the courses and saw that I have this Book..
My late uncle was a science book collector, in his library there is a few thousand books raging from biology to particle physics(I don't know why he collected them)anyway they are all mine(stuff related to physics), I'll see if I find other books on the same subject..

Brad Barker

here's a list: http://www.amazon.com/E-M-book-list/...567236-2143159

ZapperZ

Er.. if you are just starting to learn E&M, that book is not something you want to use. All the stuff you learn in undergraduate electrostatics is compressed into Jackson's Introduction! So it is not a good book to start learning E&M from. Jackson's book tends to be used in graduate level E&M courses.

Zz.