Classical Electromagnetism

This is a solid, no-frills textbook for an upper-level undergraduate Electricity and magnetism course. It covers pretty much all of the standard Electromagnetic theory, and provides the reader with some of the most basic results. The worked examples are strewn throughout the textbook, and they help the reader absorb the material. The exercises at the ends of the chapters are also an integral part of the text, and as in any other Physics textbook they are the essential part of learning the subject matter. However, neither the examples in the chapters nor the exercises at the ends, with very few exceptions, are all that advanced. The modern understanding of electromagnetism is squarely founded on Maxwell's Equations. These are first order, coupled, vector partial differential equations in three-dimensional space, in addition to the time dependence. They very complicated equations, and their solutions are hard to find except in some very special circumstances. By reading this book you would not get this impression. Most of the problems don't take more than a line or two of calculation. Students may like this, but a course based on this textbook is definitely not preparing them will in terms of fully appreciating the complexities of the Electromagnetic theory. A far better textbook, and the one that is most admired, is David Griffiths' Introduction to Electrodynamics. That book is THE standard electromagnetic textbook, and considering the price a much better deal as well. If you have any sway with the instructor of the Electrodynamics course that you are going to take, and he or she is considering using this textbook, I would recommend that you try to dissuade him/her from it. You will do yourself a great favor.