Electrodynamics crash course

**FourierX** · Dec7-08, 06:21 AM

Is there anything like *crash course* for electrodynamics ?

**JustinLevy** · Dec7-08, 06:46 AM

What do you want out of it?
Classical electrodynamics as it is usually taught at an introductory level can be summarized in four Maxwell's and one force law. That is it. That is all of electrodynamics.

Therefore most of the course is usually spent in essence teaching you math tools to solve the equations, and helping build intuition, and a background knowing some simple solved systems.

But if you want to learn the quantum version of electrodynamics, that is much more involved as that usally means you don't already know field theory. (The equivalent for the classical version is already knowing and understanding the framework of Newtonian mechanics.)

**jtbell** · Dec7-08, 03:30 PM

Originally Posted by FourierX

Is there anything like *crash course* for electrodynamics ?

Starting from what? How much math do you know?

For a pretty comprehensive set of E&M lecture notes at the intermediate level (uses vector calculus), see below:

http://farside.ph.utexas.edu/teachin.../lectures.html

**WCOLtd** · Dec7-08, 09:22 PM

check out "QED" by Richard Feynman. Great book, awesome person.

here is a good BBC documentary:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHzbKrg2HIw

Also, You can also download MIT courses on your computer:
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/index.htm

It's a very in depth science and to get any kind of feeling of understanding it, you'd probably have to study it pretty hard. But if you just kind of want to know what its about I'd definitely start by reading QED.

**Pythagorean** · Dec9-08, 01:55 AM

Originally Posted by JustinLevy

What do you want out of it?
Classical electrodynamics as it is usually taught at an introductory level can be summarized in four Maxwell's and one force law. That is it. That is all of electrodynamics.

Therefore most of the course is usually spent in essence teaching you math tools to solve the equations, and helping build intuition, and a background knowing some simple solved systems.

But if you want to learn the quantum version of electrodynamics, that is much more involved as that usally means you don't already know field theory. (The equivalent for the classical version is already knowing and understanding the framework of Newtonian mechanics.)

Yeah, if you're going this route, you might want to try Griffith's text on electrodynamics. It's probably about the closest to a crash course you're going to get. Our curriculum spent two semesters on it and didn't go past the relativity chapter.