Principles of Electrodynamics (Dover Books on Physics) by Melvin Schwartz (PDF)

Description

Unlike most textbooks on electromagnetic theory, which treat electricity, magnetism, Coulomb’s law and Faraday’s law as almost independent subjects within the framework of the theory, this well-written text takes a relativistic point of view in which electric and magnetic fields are really different aspects of the same physical quantity.Suitable for advanced undergraduates and graduate students, this volume offers a superb exposition of the essential unity of electromagnetism in its natural , relativistic framework while demonstrating the powerful constraint of relativistic invariance. It will be seen that all electromagnetism follows from electrostatics and from the requirement for the simplest laws allowable under the relativistic constraint. By means of these insights, the author hopes to encourage students to think about theories as yet undeveloped and to see this model as useful in other areas of physics.After an introductory chapter establishing the mathematical background of the subject and a survey of some new mathematical ideas, the author reviews the principles of electrostatics. He then introduces Einstein’s special theory of relativity and applies it throughout the rest of the book. Topics treated range from Gauss’s theorem, Coulomb’s law, the Faraday effect and Fresnel’s equations to multiple expansion of the radiation field , interference and diffraction, waveguides and cavities and electric and magnetic susceptibility.Carefully selected problems at the end of each chapter invite readers to test their grasp of the material. Professor Schwartz received his Ph.D. from Columbia University and has taught physics there and at Stanford University. He is perhaps best known for his experimental research in the field of high-energy physics and was a co-discoverer of the muon-type neutrino in 1962. He shared the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physics with Leon M. Lederman and Jack Steinberger.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐This book so far leans more towards vectors than points for calculating Electrodynamics. This is both more appropriate and harder to learn than most Electrodynamics books but is well worth it to learn the subject matter in a more accurate manner. You should be well versed in vector analysis. There is a primer on it in the first chapter of the book.

⭐This book is truly superb. I am a self-studier of physics and found this to be one of the best books on any subject in physics that I have read. Somehow it strikes a balance between explaining ideas at an introductory level yet takes a very mature and deep insight into the subject. As other readers have mentioned, the development of almost all of electrodynamics from Coulomb’s Law, the Principle of Special Relativity, and a little ‘intuition’ and ‘aesthetics’ makes this book transcend the level of other physics texts and even makes it deeply philosophical.Very few words are wasted, and the careful reader can really master the field of electrodynamics with this book. Little prerequisite knowledge is assumed; probably multivariable calculus (with vector analysis) and introductory newtonian mechanics are all that are absolutely needed. One possible exception is that the discussion on special relativity is a little hard to follow if you have never had any exposure to it before. Thus, I would suggest having a good grasp of SR, especially including four-vectors (and ideally four-tensors) if possible before undertaking this book. One definite criticism I had of this book is its use of imaginary numbers in the definition of Minkowski four-vectors. Although this was Minkowski’s original idea, it is virtually universally abandoned (as it should be) in every treatment of general relativity; because of this, almost all modern books on GR abandon its use in SR. It is too bad that it is used here, but this is really my only criticism of an otherwise near perfect book.

⭐Professors always told me electromagnetic theory can come from relativity, but pretty much never talked about it. Even the textbooks reference it but do not go into much depth. Well, this book does, and it is really a masterpiece to read. The author does a great job walking you through the steps and its really eye-opening and brings deeper understanding. Definitely recommended as a complement to any student’s normal textbooks. It should really be the standard.

⭐I really like this text very much and gladly give it five stars. However, I am very disappointed with the Kindle version. Amazon is still butchering mathematics and science texts with this mobi thing. Extremely poor mathematics rendering and rendering of figures. Flowable text works fine for books that are just text like scifi or romance novels and so on. For books like Schwartz’s they need to be using print replica format or completely reset the book using html5 and mathml and credible rendering engines. It’s really sad to see beautiful texts like Schwartz’s Principles mistreated in this way. I hope we aren’t going to see a whole series of poor republications of Dover books. That would be a real shame.

⭐The book of Melvin Schwartz is well written and its is very nice that these type of books become available as ebook. However: You can not read the equations ( small bitmaps) on your Kindle, they are too small! If you use the Kindle app on your computer it works fine. I suggest that Amazon put some effort in to make all equation as large as possible that you can also read the indices !

⭐This is one of those great and inexpensive Dover books, it is definitely a book taylored for physicists, its not a beginners book, rather an advanced EM book heavily based on relativism from the start. If you wish to learn EM from this book, then I would say that there are better options, but it is a great book for a second or third course on EM. I am an engineer and find the book to be out of my league, considering my current understanding of EM theory, applications are practically non-existent and mathematical derivations are profound and rigorous, however the author seems to be a good educator eventhough the book is quite dry in both writting style and looks (as most Dover books)

⭐There are technical writers and then there are professionals who write. This is a book of the latter which is much better than most of the others. This subject in my opinion is perhaps one of the most overlooked part of physics second only to light.Oh, may the Schwartz be with you! JK :)Really, thank you for writing this book Mr. Schwartz

⭐I read this book cover-to-cover a few years ago as a review of E&M theory. Overall, it was a good technical read. I will offer a few notes:1. This is a Dover reprint of a classic text (circa 1972), but then again E&M theory is a lot older than that, so….2. The book is a physics text–not an engineering text, so it is heavy on theory and light on applications. Don’t expect to see any Smith charts. Coverage of transmission lines, wave-guides, etc., is nominal.3. The book is heavy into vector calculus, so come with the requisite mathematical background.4. The author isn’t afraid of diving into some serious mathematical machinations. My favorite is the derivation of the plane-wave equation in Chapter 6–it runs on for five pages (in fine detail).5. The book reads rather dry (yes, I know its a technical book–but it is dry even for a physics text). The only particularly memorable deviation from the classical theory was a description of the method used to search for magnetic monopoles in moon rocks (which was a hot topic in 1972–evidently).For the modest price, this Dover reprint provides an economical volume for your home technical library. Regard it as a theoretical tome–not a ‘how to’ book.

⭐Book was delivered late and I wanted to take it away while on holiday but was unable to. I have since returned and have reviewed the book briefly. It’s more comprehensive than I expected and covers the subject matter extremely well if you are studying the subject at school or university. Personally, I was hoping for something by way of an introduction to the subject. Having said that the book is very reasonably priced when you compare it to other technical reference books for students.

⭐The majority of textbooks on the market these days are hideously expensive. This book however is nice and cheap and very very well explained. Electrodynamics is a mathematical subject and this book makes each step clearly and cleanly explained. This should be on the bookshelves of every physics undergraduate.

⭐If you learned electrostatics at university and you want to understand Einstein’s theory of gravitation, this is a great start because shows that magnetism is a relativistic effect of charge in motion. I studied it because it starts with a review of vector rotation basics and geometry then later applies tensors to an area of physics that I already understand. So when I moved on to study gravitation I could focus on physical concepts and rather than the mathematics of tensors, tensors being essential to Einsteins geometry based explanation of relativistic gravity.

⭐Best book on electrodynamics ….my favorite book on electrodynamics

⭐A book written for the lifelong student.

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