Classical Electricity and Magnetism: Second Edition (Dover Books on Physics) by Wolfgang K. H. Panofsky (PDF)

Description

Compact, clear, and precise in its presentation, this distinguished, widely used textbook offers graduate students and advanced undergraduates a diverse and well-balanced selection of topics.Subjects include the electrostatic field in vacuum; boundary conditions and relation of microscopic to macroscopic fields; general methods for the solution of potential problems, including those of two and three dimensions; energy relations and forces in the electrostatic field; steady currents and their interaction; magnet materials and boundary value problems; and Maxwell’s equations. Additional topics include energy, force, and momentum relations in the electromagnetic field; the wave equation and plane waves; conducting fluids in a magnetic field; waves in the presence of metallic boundaries; the inhomogeneous wave equation; the experimental basis for the theory of special relativity; relativistic kinematics and the Lorentz transformation; covariance and relativistic mechanics; covariant formulation of electrodynamics; and the Liénard-Wiechert potentials and the field of a uniformly moving electron.The text concludes with examinations of radiation from an accelerated charge; radiation reaction and covariant formulation of the conservation laws of electrodynamics; radiation, scattering, and dispersion; the motion of charged particles in electromagnetic fields; and Hamiltonian formulation of Maxwell’s equations.

User’s Reviews

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

⭐By now I have read five or six chapters, and I must say that I am very impressed.It is surely the best graduate level book on Electromagnetism I have ever read.The author manages to achieve a very good balance between physics and mathematics.Some things that are not clear (and indeed look like very tricky) in other books, here appear naturally and in a very logical and clear way.The explanations are very insighful and offer you very interesting connections whithin the EM Theory.Definitely, it is an excellent book, and in my opinion, it deserves to be the standard graduate EM text more than others that currently have this consideration.

⭐I am writing this review to balance the review by the dissatisfied student. Do not believe it. Panofsky and Phillips is one of the great graduate level books on classical electrodynamics. It is comparable in level and quality to Landau and Lifshitz and to Jackson. As the student reveiwer implies it may be a bit less concise and somewhat more talkative than those two, but the explanations given are often profund and can be of great value to the serious, mature, and literate student. This book really belongs to a decent library on electromagnetism.

⭐I would like to return this book because it does not meet my expectations. Please, let me knonw how to do tit.

⭐The best EM book money can buy. This book is easy to read and has the right balance between physics and mathematical derivation.

⭐nice book but its better to have the new edition…

⭐This book is such an uncommonly well-written text that I felt I would rewrite and resubmit my first review (as that first review has mysteriously disappeared from Amazon’s pages). While this text will not supplant Jackson’s Classical Electrodynamics (I refer to the second edition, 1975), it makes an excellent ancillary text to Jackson (ancillary, because Jackson offers far more problem sets). Now, I do have favorites (Garg and Schwinger), but they are newer publications. In any event, no single book fits every conceivable student, thus, study from all of them ! Allow me to concentrate on Panofsky and Phillips (second edition):(1) Before study of chapter one, learn or derive each vector formula in the Appendix: appendix two is vector relations.(Same regarding Jackson’s textbook: derive each and every vector identity on his inside cover/flyleaf before study).Panofsky begins with Integrals, that is, Helmholtz theorem and its derivation: “All vector fields in three dimensions are uniquely defined if their circulation densities (curl) and source densities (divergence) are given functions of the coordinates at all points in space, and if the totality of sources, as well as the source density, is zero at infinity.”Study the derivation. The foundation of the entire exposition originates here.(2) There are twenty-four chapters spanning 450 pages. Sixteen problems concludes the first chapter. Complete each one of these, they are not difficult. A problem-set will introduce the Delta-function. In any event, needed manipulative skill is honed in this first, exceptional, chapter. A nice comparison can be made between this text (page 39) and Jackson’s text (page 119) regards Polarization. Chapter two, here, is crisp and clear.(3) Importantly: “only a few of the most idealized problems can be solved with any degree of simplicity.” (page 42).Chapter three will introduce Green’s functions, images, separation-of-variables: Potential Problems. The exposition is exceptional, end-of-chapter problems are exceptional, and fairly tractable (fourteen of them). We repeat: “no matter how the solution is obtained, if it satisfies the given boundary conditions, the problem is considered solved.”(4) Conformal Transformations (oft neglected these days). Ignore at your own peril, what is here written is lucid.(5) Onward to three dimensions (Laplace): Here we have the usual separation-of-variables in certain coordinate systems, along with the requisite special functions (Legendre, Bessel). A copy of Byerly’s Fourier Series and Spherical Harmonics will fill in the gaps. Dimensional analysis serves well in untangling many of the complicated expressions.(6) Highlight: Chapter Six, Energy Relations (still, electrostatics). We read: “the fundamental reason for attributing physical reality to the field will not become apparent until nonstatic effects are discussed.” (page 95) and “it is not possible to ascertain experimentally whether the energy resides in the field or is possessed by the charges which produce the field.” (page 98). You will meet stress tensor and convective derivative (pages 103 and 109).(7) Current, arrives chapter seven. Symmetry emphasized (page 124), analogy is utilized (torque, angular momentum).(8) From magnetic fields to magnetic materials, progressing from chapter seven to eight. Vector potential introduced. . Here, analogy to the electrostatic case is emphasized (See, too,Feynman’s Volume Two). An exceptional discussion.(9) Maxwell’s Equations. Then, to a consolidation and generalization of energy and forces in electromagnetic fields (chapter ten). We learn: “Paradoxical results may be obtained if one tries to identify the Poynting vector with the energy flow per unit area at any particular point.” (page 180). Wave equations and radiation pressure come next.The brief excursion (six pages) of magnetohydrodynamics is almost an afterthought. From waves in vacuum to waves in metallic boundaries: “we shall see that two independent field components play the role of potentials from which the complete fields may be derived.” (page 212). Wave Guides: makes nice comparison to what Schwinger has to say.(10) An excellent chapter fourteen, inhomogeneous wave equations, is next. Learn of “complete symmetry between scalar and vector potentials” when utilizing the so-called Lorentz condition. More special functions (Hankel, Bessel) and more Fourier analysis (page 242).(11) Beginning with special relativity we progress to higher abstraction (covariant formulation). A brief encounter with the notation “ict” is quickly bypassed for an exposition which discards that so-called “imaginary-time-component.”(12) Let us skip ahead to the concluding chapters, Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formulation. Excellent discussions, all.Conclusion,: this text is not as expansive, or detailed, as Jackson (Panofsky, with fewer problems for the student to solve). On the other hand, what is included here is well-written and pedagogically presented.It is best to secure a copy of many different Classical Electrodynamics textbooks.There is no single resource that will meet every need.Panofsky and Phillips is highly recommended.

⭐I have been going through electricity and magnetism books to find a good text at the graduate level and recently started to reread this one. Since originally finding this book (in the 1962 hardback edition) at a library sale as a grad student I have taught graduate electricity and magnetism and undergraduate electromagnetism classes from both Jackson and Griffiths as a professor. Griffiths was very clear but Jackson was just painful to use. Panofsky and Philips is a fairly old text, so I didn’t pull it off the shelf. I should have. Reading Panofsky and Philips again, the things that seemed obscure at when I was a grad student turned out to be the things I had worked out while making notes on Griffiths as a professor. The discussion is deeper though and goes into more detail with references to the literature that are really helpful and always motivated by the physics. Where Jackson is just opaque and obscure the discussions of difficulties here are logical and clear. It could use more examples and problems. The units are MKS which is helpful if you learned from Griffiths. Really outstanding text though I would supplement it with a problem book to get the full benefit.

⭐This is a wonderful book that focuses more on physics than on the mathematical techniques. It is one of the few books still in print to deal with topics like a) stresses in fluids and solids due to external electromagnetic fields, b) Maxwell equations in moving media in the non-relativistic case or c) use of complex variables in solving potential problems.Unlike Jackson’s book that promises to prepare the reader to handle research problems in theoretical physics by teaching the necessary mathematical methods, Panofsky and Phillips focus on electromagnetism alone and do a wonderful job.I think this is a good graduate level book and if read with its contemporaries like Stratton’s Electromagnetic Theory or Smythe’s Static and Dynamic Electricity, it can provide a formidable foundation in the subject.

⭐After trying almost every book on the market (Purcell,Griffiths, Jackson, Landau, the list goes on) this is the one which opened my eyes to see every little detail and understand why certain things are the way they are. ( For example, it explicitly shows why Neumann and Dirichlet conditions are sufficient to determine the potential, yes, with maths, but more so through physical interpretation of the given equations).The problem with other literature is that its either not deep enough, or if it is, it is explained as if you already know whats going on. Not so here. Steps are clear and rigorous. Few people have a problem with it being a bit wordy, but that’s physics, it is in fact the heir of philosophy and I like to read and understand Physics more than just applying the maths blindly. To me this is the best book out there. Buying just this book will save you a lot of time and money!Pro tip : Get the book on Vector Calculus by Louis Brand and Tensor Calculus by Barry Spain, two fantastic, short books about these subjects, if you struggle with them.

⭐Ótimo livro a um preço acessível pra quem não têm bolso pro Jackson!Be careful guys, it is a indian reprint dover edition. I’m keeping only because the content is great.

⭐Way above the expectations. The only book with correct mathematical and physical relationship in the formulation of the laws. Just like the principles of quantum mechanics by Dirac.

⭐The great Author.

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