A Student's Guide to Maxwell's Equations | 
| Author: Daniel Fleisch
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $28.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 6025
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 144
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6 x 0.4
ISBN: 0521701473
Dewey Decimal Number: 530.141
EAN: 9780521701471
ASIN: 0521701473
Publication Date: January 28, 2008
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Product Description
Gauss's law for electric fields, Gauss's law for magnetic fields, Faraday's law, and the Ampere-Maxwell law are four of the most influential equations in science. In this guide for students, each equation is the subject of an entire chapter, with detailed, plain-language explanations of the physical meaning of each symbol in the equation, for both the integral and differential forms. The final chapter shows how Maxwell's equations may be combined to produce the wave equation, the basis for the electromagnetic theory of light. This book is a wonderful resource for undergraduate and graduate courses in electromagnetism and electromagnetics. A website hosted by the author at www.cambridge.org/9780521701471 contains interactive solutions to every problem in the text as well as audio podcasts to walk students through each chapter.
Book Description
Maxwell's equations are four of the most influential equations in science. In this book, each equation is the subject of an entire chapter, making it a wonderful resource for undergraduate and graduate courses in electromagnetism and electromagnetics. Audio podcasts and solutions to the problems are available at www.cambridge.org/9780521701471.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
 Read this book before that first EM class August 18, 2008
The first class in Electricity and Magnetism is often difficult for undergraduates. The course material brings together diverse concepts in Physics and Mathematics in a way that can challenge some students. This book is a useful primer for undergraduates. The book focuses on the mechanics of applying the four equations attributed to Maxwell. There is little or no discussion of the engineering or physics involved in applying these equations. The author presents each equation in a separate chapter and shows the different forms, e.g. integral, differential, in which they are written. The step by step identification of each and every term and operation can get boring but it provides a good explanation for the new student. It is a quick read and can be a useful reference during a class. The problems at the end of each chapter are good ones and I particularly liked the approach of providing solutions to all problems on a website.
Good adjunct to textbook, or stand-alone July 30, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I took a graduate course in electromagnetics, and there was so much material that I sometimes had a feeling I had lost site of the basics. I have completed only the first section in the book, on Guass's law for electric charge, but that is enough to get a flavor of the whole book. The material is well organized, easy to understand without being too simplified. A unique feature, which I have never seen before, is the printing of the fundamental equations in large type, with arrows with text explanations for each and every part of the symbol. I have found in my math and physics studies it is essential to frequently ask oneself "what exactly does this equation mean?" It is easy to get wrapped up in or bogged down in symbolism and forget what exactly is being talked about. Many textbooks help to foster this disconnect by being overly cryptic and making statements like "it obviously follows that ... " while skipping over the three pages of calculations needed to make the statement "obvious"! The author of "A Students Guide" never does this, taking care to explain in detail what each part of the equation means both mathematically and physically. Finally, I like the problem sets at the end of each section. You can work the problems, then find the completely worked out solutions on the web. If you get stuck part way through, the website even provides hints to keep you going. By the way, if you are serious about learning the material, ALWAYS work through the problem sets. This is the only way to really get a grasp on the material. I am looking forward to going through the rest of the book!
Very useful for students studying electromagnetism July 16, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Students studying electromagnetism for the first time usually find Maxwell's equations (and the subject as a whole) rather mysterious. This little book will go a long way to help them understand, appreciate and remember the four great equations. The audio podcasts on the Cambridge website will help to reinforce the message. I sincerely that this will start a trend of similar books on other topics such as fluid mechaincs, quantum mechanics and signal processing.
Everthing you wanted to know about Maxwell's equation but were afraid to ask! June 28, 2008
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
Like most practicing engineers, my understanding of EM is based more on experience rather than rigorous mathematical theory.
I'm sure many of us can remember being exposed to vector calculus as applied to EM as undergraduates, but regarding it as an academic hurdle to be overcome, rather than something that might actually be useful later in a professional career.
The situation is worsened latterly by the evolution of EM modeling tools, which do all the donkey work for you - further reducing the requirement for a sound understanding of Maxwell.
But one day, you run into a problem that needs a bit more than the stock solutions - what now ? You rush to your text books, and you than discover that you have forgotten everything from your college days, and without your friendly old professor on hand, everything looks like gobbledegook !
I always been amazed that such an important subject is always presented so poorly, even in well regarded text books. In my opinion, a book should convey understanding - not just regurgitate facts.
Fleisch does an excellent job of conveying the concepts of div,grad and curl. The influence of the late Prof Kraus is clearly evident in his style (ref Electomagnetics, Kraus). Fleisch uses analogy to help the reader get an intuitive feel for the problem before diving into the maths. Personally, I fully endorse this approach - Fleisch is also diligent enough to highlight the limits of the analogous approach, which should keep the purists happy.
My only minor criticism of this book has already been stated by another reviewer, a tabular summary of equations covered in each chapter would be helpful. Also having the word 'student' in the title means I have to keep it stowed in my draw when not in use to avoid embarrassment ;)
So just own up - you're just like me - you never really understood Maxwell, and have been afraid to ask ! Get this book and sort your EM life out.
Maxwells Equations Simplified April 17, 2008
15 out of 15 found this review helpful
The best book clearly I have read in the last year; it combines simple calculus and EM physics into a readable book. Because I already knew Stokes theory, the divergence theorem and all the other math, I was able to read this book in about a week. You get the solutions to the problems on the website and great podcasts also. I would like to see more from this author on other subjects like quantum physics in this format; the technology is out there to provide podcasts, and maybe even do videos of some experiments to clarify the results.
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