Electricity and Magnetism

by Munir H. Nayfeh, Morton K. Brussel

This outstanding text for a two-semester course is geared toward physics undergraduates who have completed a basic first-year physics course. The coherent treatment offers several notable features, including 300 detailed examples at various levels of difficulty, a self-contained chapter on vector algebra, and a single chapter devoted to radiation that cites interrelationships between various analysis methods.
Starting with chapters on vector analysis and electrostatics, the text covers electrostatic boundary value problems, formal and microscopic theories of dielectric electrostatics and of magnetism and matter, electrostatic energy, steady currents, and induction. Additional topics include magnetic energy, circuits with nonsteady currents, Maxwell's equations, radiation, electromagnetic boundary value problems, and the special theory of relativity. Exercises appear at the end of each chapter and answers to odd-numbered problems are included in one of several helpful appendixes.

Genres: Physics

640 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Professor Munir Hasan Nayfeh is a Palestinian-American particle physicist, renowned for his pioneering work in nanotechnology. Nayfeh was born in December 1945, in the village of Shweikeh near Tulkarem, in the West Bank. Due to the Israeli invasion, Nayfeh was forced to continue his post elementary studies in Jordan, where he received his Thanaweyeh Ammeh (high school diploma). He received his Bachelors degree in 1968, and his masters in physics in 1970 from the American University of Beirut, after which he won a scholarship to pursue his PhD at the University of Stanford in the USA, which he successfully completed in 1974.

Professor Nayfeh then went onto to work in Oak Ridge National Laboratory from 1974–1977, then at Yale University in 1977, finally joining the University if Illinois as a tenured professor in 1978. He has published over 130 papers, and several books, on Lasers, Electricity and Magnetism. His name appears on the "Whos' Who America", the "Who's Who in Technology Today", and the "Who's Who in Engineering" lists.

Nayfeh is most noted for his pioneering work in nanotechnology, and in 1977 answered the question that Richard Feynman posited in 1959 "what would happen if man could manipulate individual atoms? and succeed in rearranging them within their chemical constituents?". Using cutting edge technology in Lasers, Nayfeh succeeded in manipulating individual atoms into the shape of a 'P' enclosed within a heart. This ground breaking work revolutionised particle physics, and has enabled the advent of electron microscopes and nanotechnology.

Reviews

[Gregory A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm really enjoying the treatment of the spherical and cylindrical coordinate systems and their association to differential volume elements. Looking forward to reading the rest but had to buy a hard-cover copy of the book so that I can see the equations as intended, not just as converted into digital. I enjoy the insights into the Laplacian that were provided, if you dared to track them down, which I did through the references provided, and will never look at the Laplacian except as an indication of local anomaly any more. Looking forward to getting that beautifully bound book soon.