Feynman lectures volume II - how is it?

Sourabh N

I'll be studying electromagnetism next sem (January) and I thought reading Feynman before the proper start of course will be useful, but Feynman himself said( in the preface) that he did not do much creation in vol II. So, is there any other Feynman sort of book on electromagnetism or I should go with Feynman's lectures ?

las3rjock

Griffiths' Introduction to Electrodynamics is pretty close to the spirit of the Feynman lectures, in my opinion. It is intended for a second course in electromagnetics, but I think a sufficiently motivated student could use it for a first course. I am not alone in thinking this, as MIT now uses Griffiths as the main text for the honors section of their first course in electrodynamics and Purcell and Feynman as reference texts. (Source: http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-...abus/index.htm )

Daverz

Feynman may not have been satisfied, but I still think his presentation makes for a great read.

Sourabh N

I was expecting this reply only.

thanks for both replies.

Sourabh N

How is Landau & Lif****z's two books on electrodynamics and fields, will it suit my purpose? (I mean I don't exactly need a course book, just a book which is good for reading).

Daverz

I only have the Classical Theory of Fields book, and it's really too advanced to be very useful for an undergrad course, though certainly fascinating and enlightening.

I'd recommend Principles of Electrodynamics by Schwartz. (3rd one down on this Amazon search.) It's written very much in the Feynman spirit.
A downside is that he uses the old "ict" notation for relativity, but that won't cause brain damage contrary to popular opinion.

I also highly recommend the book by Nayfeh & Brussel, which is full of useful worked problems.

Doc Al

Ditto. I used that one as an undergrad. Excellent.