Suggestions for an E&M Book to Study: No Grad Level Here!

[Cyrus]

I want to find another book to study E&M. The book I have is university physics by sears/zemanski 11th ed. I think the book is ok but not great. Anyone know of any good E&M book that I can use to study this? I don't want to do problems, so I don't care if the problems in the back are terrible or great, I just want a book that explains the subject very clearly. I posed a solenoid question earlier, the reason being this book does not explain it that well. It just says, paraphrasing, the field in a solenoid can be assumed all uniform inside the solenoid, and zero outside, but does not bother to mention how this is true. Any thoughts would be helpful. Another thing I think it was poor in explaining is how the electric field in a circuit is contained within a wire and follows the curves and bends of the wire. Look forward to your suggestions. (please don't suggest a grad level book! YIKES, I know someone will, lol)

 

[Gokul43201]

Griffiths' Electrodynamics is a commonly used (college level) text. One level up is Jackson's Electrodynamics (grad school). And one level down (high school/college) would be the relevant chapters from Resnick & Halliday.

 

[cepheid]

I'm using Griffiths...but you need a good handle on vector calculus for E & M (my course basically culminates with Maxwell's equations). I don't know what your math background is. I think Griffiths is pretty good (for third year)...he has an easy conversational style that makes explanations nicer to follow...a certain lack of rigour and rigid formality is good for us undergrads (I guess that's why the book is so common at this level). But I have a friend who's a grad student who says she thinks the book totally sucks...that its all paragraphs of vague explanations followed by the presentation of equations...without enough explanation as to their roots. It's a matter of the level, needs, preferences, learning style, and perspective of the reader.

By the way...everyone here seems to swear by that Resnick and Halliday for first years...yet I was stuck using that Sears and Zemansky book in first year too. I guess we were robbed...

 

[Gokul43201]

I found S&Z better than R&H for fluid statics and dynamics.

 

[ZapperZ]

I want to find another book to study E&M. The book I have is university physics by sears/zemanski 11th ed. I think the book is ok but not great. Anyone know of any good E&M book that I can use to study this?

What you have is a General Physics text, not a "specialized" text in any subject. This text is supposed to be commensurate with your mathematical and physics expertise at your level. A recommendation of text that are commonly used by undergradutes in a specialized subject course such as Griffith's Intro to E&M would be a bit beyond your ablity. This is because such texts assumes you already have a good grasp of vector calculus.

I would suggest you find other similar general physics text, such as Halliday and Resnick, as has been suggested. None of them are radically different than the other in terms of coverage of topics, but they may have slight variations in their pedagogical approaches.

Zz.

 

[quantumdude]

For my money, Griffiths is the best in the business. I also like Wangsness.

Here's a free one that's also nice:

http://www.plasma.uu.se/CED/Book/

 

[Cyrus]

Ive already taken multivariable calc so that's not an issue. Tom I clicked that link and my head is still spinning. Thats more like a multivariable/physics cocktail. It tastes like orange after two sips and it blows your head off. momma mia. I think I could follow it along, but it would be tough for me.

 

[cepheid]

Haha...Maxwell's equations by page 14...compared to Griffiths...a little condensed. And the notation in that book is just slightly more elaborate...makes it a bit tougher to follow...