Navigating Purcell's Physics Course: Challenges & Solutions

[ender2309]

My honors physics course is working with Purcell's textbook, but I've found some sections of the book are quite wordy and hard to follow, and i don't have any way to check my practice work: there are virtually no answers to any of the practice questions.
thanks in advance!

 

[Daverz]

Is it the relativity sections of Purcell that you are having trouble with?

 

[stevenb]

... and i don't have any way to check my practice work: there are virtually no answers to any of the practice questions.

Not true. You are free to post your attempts at problems here and get feedback.

 

[ender2309]

Is it the relativity sections of Purcell that you are having trouble with?

yeah, not so much the actual relativity work (I've always found it to be more or less of a breeze), but the application to electric fields and magnetic fields.

essentially, my biggest problem right now comes down to magnetics. i know that E' parallel=E parallel and E' perpendicular is equal to gamma(Eperp+beta cross Bperp),

but i don't know how to apply that, at all.

 

[Nabeshin]

Assuming you're interested in noble purposes, the solutions to a great many of the problems in Purcell are available somewhere online, simply through a google search.

Also, if you're having trouble comprehending the discussion of relativistic E&M in Purcell you're somewhat out of luck, since that's the lowest level introduction I know of (lower level texts usually don't go into it, and higher level texts like Griffiths have a more advanced approach). That said, it might be worth it to read the section in griffiths merely to give a different wording.

 

[marcusl]

The only other undergrad book I know of that covers E&M from a relativistic standpoint is Schwartz's Principles of Electrodynamics. It is a beautiful book, but at a higher level than Purcell. Still it's inexpensive (Dover edition) and you might find it fills in gaps in understanding.

 

[ender2309]

thanks! a friend of mine ended up having griffiths, and i guess it was just the way purcell explained it that tripped me up, because after reading the relevant sections there it cleared up immediately.

 

[blacknovember]

Jackson is what I use.