Is Jackson's Classical Electrodynamics a Good Resource for Self-Study?

[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:

 

[ZapperZ]

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..

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.