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The Electromagnetic Field
This outstanding volume, designed for junior and senior undergraduates in physics or electrical engineering, is an unusually comprehensive treatment of the subject. The book begins with the basis of electric and magnetic fields and builds up to electromagnetic theory, followed by a number of related and subsidiary topics, including relativity.
Chapter 1 gives a detailed treatment of the del operator with many examples. Chapters 2–7 cover magnetostatics and electrostatics, including Coulomb's law, electrostatic and magnetostatic curl in a vacuum, Gauss's law, electrostatic and magnetostatic divergence in a vacuum, and electrostatics and magnetostatics in matter. Chapter 8 is devoted to three special methods for solving various problems in electrostatics. Chapter 9 deals with metallic conduction, and chapter 10 is concerned with ferromagnetism. Chapter 11 discusses the basic phenomena associated with variations in time. Then chapter 12 treats electric circuits. After chapters on special relativity and the connection between electricity and magnetism, the last five chapters deal with waves of various plane waves, transmission lines, reflection and refraction, guided waves, and radiation.
In each section of each chapter, there are several worked-out examples, illustrating practical applications of the preceding theory. In addition, each section concludes with a collection of 15 to 20 problems, resulting in a total of over 900 problems in the text, conveniently grouped by subject. Answers for the odd-numbered problems are provided at the back of the book.
Professor Shadowitz (Fairleigh Dickinson University) is well known for his often novel perspective and his ability to bridge the world of the theoretical physicist and the practical electrical engineer. This well-written text, esteemed in the field for its original and interesting material, offers an excellent exhibition of his uncommon pedagogical skills.
Chapter 1 gives a detailed treatment of the del operator with many examples. Chapters 2–7 cover magnetostatics and electrostatics, including Coulomb's law, electrostatic and magnetostatic curl in a vacuum, Gauss's law, electrostatic and magnetostatic divergence in a vacuum, and electrostatics and magnetostatics in matter. Chapter 8 is devoted to three special methods for solving various problems in electrostatics. Chapter 9 deals with metallic conduction, and chapter 10 is concerned with ferromagnetism. Chapter 11 discusses the basic phenomena associated with variations in time. Then chapter 12 treats electric circuits. After chapters on special relativity and the connection between electricity and magnetism, the last five chapters deal with waves of various plane waves, transmission lines, reflection and refraction, guided waves, and radiation.
In each section of each chapter, there are several worked-out examples, illustrating practical applications of the preceding theory. In addition, each section concludes with a collection of 15 to 20 problems, resulting in a total of over 900 problems in the text, conveniently grouped by subject. Answers for the odd-numbered problems are provided at the back of the book.
Professor Shadowitz (Fairleigh Dickinson University) is well known for his often novel perspective and his ability to bridge the world of the theoretical physicist and the practical electrical engineer. This well-written text, esteemed in the field for its original and interesting material, offers an excellent exhibition of his uncommon pedagogical skills.
- GenresPhysics
1316 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 1, 1988
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Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review
November 20, 2020
I guess I was expecting something more Maxwellian, but the discussion of Maxwell's contribution to EM theory was limited almost to the very last chapter. This was almost entirely geometric in nature, with endless discussion of the direction of electric and magnetic fields under various (typically ideal, that is to say imaginary) conditions. As an electronics hobbyist, I found it overall useful in fleshing out my understanding of more abstruse concepts, but of limited applicability to what I actually do with circuitry. For the electronics student, it does provide a very basic treatment of the standard passive circuit elements (resistors, capacitors, inductors) and their operations under various electromagnetic conditions.
It does raise an interesting point, though: that the interplay between magnetism and electricity is a matter of the relative motion between the sources of the fields; to an observer at rest with respect to one source, its field simply doesn't exist. This simultaneous existence / non-existence of a field is the paradox that Einstein set out to explain in his first electrodynamic theory, as published in the paper "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies" (which most of us will better know as "Special Relativity"). The relativistic treatment of EM comes fairly late in the book, presumably because of all the necessary groundwork.
This is an extraordinarily mathy tome, for the hardcore physics nerd or college student only.
It does raise an interesting point, though: that the interplay between magnetism and electricity is a matter of the relative motion between the sources of the fields; to an observer at rest with respect to one source, its field simply doesn't exist. This simultaneous existence / non-existence of a field is the paradox that Einstein set out to explain in his first electrodynamic theory, as published in the paper "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies" (which most of us will better know as "Special Relativity"). The relativistic treatment of EM comes fairly late in the book, presumably because of all the necessary groundwork.
This is an extraordinarily mathy tome, for the hardcore physics nerd or college student only.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review