Electricity and Magnetism

Berkeley Physics Course #2

by Edward M. Purcell

The sequence of topics covered electrostatics; steady currents; magnetic field; electromagnetic induction; and electric and magnetic polarization in matter. Taking a nontraditional approach, students focus on fundamental questions from different frames of reference. Each chapter has figures and problems to apply concepts studied.

Genres: Physics, Science, Textbooks, Mathematics, Engineering, Nonfiction, Technical

506 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1965

Reviews

[Adam Lantos · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing book that treats the subject matter in an intuitive way, always providing graphic illustrations. It Is a lower-division EM book and that is the only drawback, according to me. It is also very helpful for learning Electromagnetism at a higher level in cases where the reader needs some intuition on the basics and for some visualization of the various electromagnetic phenomena. Moreover, Dr. Morin has took an already great book and made it even better by adding many more problems (with a huge amount of them also having solutions), but even these problems, not matter how difficult they get (and they can get really difficult at some points), they are still not very mathematically sophisticated (not even at the level of Griffiths' on most occasions).
This is an excellent treatment of Electromagnetism and it might possibly be the best introduction to Electromagnetism at a level just one step lower than that of Griffiths'. But, as building intuition goes, this even beats Griffiths' textbook, which says a lot!

[Rudradeep Mukherjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was incredible. Purcell's prose goes to the heart of what science should mean and how electromagnetism should be taught. This book can be re-read for pleasure if and when required. The topics cover the entire breadth of electromagnetism and uses a little (superficial) reference to quantum mechanics. Many subtle things that a physics student might have wondered are treated wonderfully and with full justification. The appendices treating electromagnetic radiation of accelerated charge particles, superconductivity and magnetic resonance are gems as well. Textbooks like this should be the first ones to be introduced to students.

[Yangli]

Electricity and Magnetism, Vol. II

[Jason Bennett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mandatory supplement to Griffiths! Incredible text.

[Dimitris Papadimitriou · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book! The author does a great job of explaining the concepts in an intuitive way. Every chapter has a summary in the beginning and a list of the useful equations in the end. In addition, every chapter contains a subchapter of applications of whatever was studied in the given chapter. There is a very large number of exercises and many of them (about 15 in every chapter) have fully worked solutions at the end of the book! The only caveat is that sometimes the author is wordy. I found it very useful to read this in parallel to Griffiths (Griffiths provided more math and more concise explanations, Purcell provided more intuition).

[Jack · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one took me a long time to get through, mostly because of the proofs. I combined it with a re read of Griffiths Electrodynamics tog get a feel for how to use the information. I think I increased my understanding by a large percentage. Sadly, that still doesn’t leave me where I’d like to be. I’m an old retired guy trying to get deeper knowledge on things I studied in college. I think I need to keep trying. Working more of the exercises is probably what’s needed. Lots of info in here, but definitely not a casual read.

[Sangeet. S · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the most insightful undergraduate physics texts and perhaps, one of the best till date on the subject matter.

While it's contemporary written by Purcell's student D.J. Griffiths is an excellent text with balance between rigor and insight, the sheer amount of insight and intuitive development makes up for the lack of rigor in this textbook.

This is a perfect book to start learning classical electromagnetism for any undergraduate freshman.

[Bärää Bäsëm · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's ok

[Neutrino3 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is what pure love looks like

[Adam Ramker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great chapter that uses lorentz transformations to derive the magnetic field.

[Mehmet Kara · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wish I bought a different textbook. The explanations are okay at best and the example problems did not resemble what was in the homework or exams at all.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've heard this recommended over the Griffiths' book so I thought I'd try it out. I ultimately didn't finish the book because I found the exposition unclear. It promises to teach the classical picture of electromagnetism but spends so much time half-explaining the logic of the quantum picture, that it interrupts and ultimately does a disservice to the classical picture. I get that the classical picture is wrong, but I'd find it much easier to follow to have a fully explained and consistent description of the classical model. When I'm ready to see how it's wrong, I'll graduate to the quantum story.

So ultimately I've shifted over to Griffiths. He is more consistent and clear, although I will say that he seems to skip much of the reasoning process behind discoveries in Physics and just gives the punchline. Although Purcell is often unclear, he does more often attempt to give explanations and context for the topics he covers.

Purcell also talks about topics more directly relevant to circuits, which some readers may prefer. Personally, I'm patient and I can grab another book on circuits once I'm done studying E&M.

[yyy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a pretty great text. The eager physics student should jump between this and Feynman's lectures, as least for the wealth of problems provided in the latter. Feynman presents many unique problems, and sometimes different solutions for problems in this book; two methods of solving a problem are always better than one!

[Yousuf · Rating 5 out of 5]

This a tough subject but the book does a great job. There are practice problems for all skill levels.

The part that connected the magnetic force with special relativity was mathematically intense - but eye-opening! If you can keep up with the math you'll learn a lot.

Make sure you brush up on your multivariable calculus and differential equations beforehand.

[Jim]

This is a good book for reviewing engineering physics as well as hopefully discovering insights. The discussion of electromagnetic fields, charge, and their relation to relativity is lucidly presented.

[Marshall Borrus · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked his jokes. Best textbook I've had.

[Carlhdr]

Strogatz: "best textbook I've ever read"