Introduction to Electrodynamics (3rd Edition) Description:

Introduction to Electrodynamics (3rd Edition) review:
5 stars (The Best I've Seen) - This book is probably the most used one I own. I refer to it for just about everything. You need all the vector calculus equations? There they are on the front cover. Need more info on them? First chapter covers vec. calc. pretty well.



As a beginning grad student in physics this book was invaluable. I lacked the EM background many around me had, but this book saved me. For instance, mutual induction...what the heck is it? I never learned that in undergrad and if I did, I sure don't remember. Well, I could scour my grad text Jackson for a couple hours and still never find a decent explanation or find it used in a much to technical context. Or I can look it up in Griffiths and find it explained with clarity and simplicity. Of course, if you've mastered undergrad EM, Griffiths may be baby food. But I can't imagine living without it. Jackson does go way more into detail but often when looking something up, that is more of a hindrance.



The problems in Griffiths are good because they range from trivial to very difficult. But as far as I know there are no Jackson type problems where you also don't learn anything valuable from them after the first time. Griffiths problems tend to actually teach you and not just drive you to suicide. In fact, I would recommend do many problems from the text that are not assigned because you will learn a lot from his problems. I think that is a sign of a good text book where every aspect of it lends to the learning process.




2 stars (Lack of practical insight) - It's been years since I've been in school when I took a course using this book. Years in the real world, I came back to this book to clear up an issue I had when designing an electronics device that required knowledge of magnetization and, magnetic field density, susceptability, etc. What I came to realize from consulting the book was there are basically no real-life practical problems that have real-life results with real computed values. All the examples only ended up being another equation. Having results such as these are mathematically pretty, perhaps, but always drive me nuts? Does this equation assume that the material is diamagnetic, paramagnetic or ferromagnetic? Also, for new students, concepts such as magneto-motive force, magnetic field density, magnetic field, magnetic flux, magnetic field intensity,etc. are tricky to get a feeling for. Unfortunately, the author's only insight comes with using equations, and examples that result in more equations. You never get an intuitive sense of the magnitudes or directions of various fields, etc. when the answer is so general. It takes a very seasoned physicist to see through such results; a student is left confused, with only equations to create an "intuitive" fundation. What is needed are problems such as "A 4-79 Permalloy material with a 20-gauge insulated wire wrapped around it with a alternating current of 120Hz. Find B, H, M, susceptability, inductance, etc. Doing such a problem requires a focused answer, one that defines a point of measure, one that requires working knowedge of real-life parts (what you do when you get a real job), and provides a practical situation that arise when designing something. Also, there are so many important quantum ideas that should have been included (at least breifly mentioned), so as to bring the study of electrodynamics back to earth. Are university physics departments actually trying to help their students find a job by giving them books such as this?
5 stars (My favorite undergrad physics text) - I am a graduate student in physics, and when I want to do an E&M calculation for my research, I refer to this text, not Jackson. Griffiths gives you the intuitive understanding of E&M that is necessary to tackle the more difficult problems. This was the first physics text that I actually read, rather than just doing the problems and referring to the formulas, and it is still a joy to look back to. Many schools cover this book in two semesters, or leave out sections in a one-semester course, but I did not think that studying the whole text in one semester was too overwhelming.