Introduction to Electrodynamics (3rd Edition)

Book Description

Features a clear, accessible treatment of the fundamentals of electromagnetic theory. Its lean and focused approach employs numerous examples and problems. Carefully discusses subtle or difficult points. Contains numerous, relevant problems within the book in addition to end of each chapter problems and answers.

Customer Reviews:

The best book on electrodynamics.......2007-07-27

A fantastic textbook, ideal for any undergraduate, and highly recommended to a graduate student for a "grounded" reality of what one is talking about in doing problems in Jackson! One can teach oneself from this book. Griffiths is a master of understanding and showing.

This is written as a graduate physicist.

Very good text.......2007-04-30

Yes - this is a good intro to electrodynamics, just as everyone says. It isn't a substitute for Jackson - they are in different classes, each with their own intended audiences and purposes. If you're fairly new to the subject, here's a little secret: in addition to this book, get vol 2 of The Feynman Lectures in physics! There's no equal to Richard Feynman when it comes to conveying complex abstractions in ways that even a caveman could understand (not even Geico Insurance). Later, when you're already grounded in the subject, by all means, knock yourself for a loop with Jackson.

watch editions.......2007-04-06

Great textbook, amazingly readable, but watch out which edition you have. The so-called "Eastern Economy Edition" (paperback and marketed in Asia)is missing a few things, notably labels on some problem diagrams. If you don't have friends with the real one, be sure to avoid that.

Don't buy J.D. Jackson!!.......2007-03-08

Unless: a) your professor makes you, b) you have bought Griffiths to actually learn something, c) all of the above. Griffiths should be a mandatory graduate text to introduce and lay foundations for more advanced concepts- it bridges the gap really well.

Excellent, Easy to Read.......2007-03-08

Griffiths does an excellent job presenting the material in an easy to read, conversational manner. He focuses on both the physics and the mathematics in a non-pretentious way, unlike many other books. It may not be as technically deep as, say, Jacksons book, but it gets the job done. Highly recommended.

Average customer rating:

The emperor is naked
canon
Jackson is not a pedagogical text.
A Review of "Classical Electrodynamics", Jackson, J. D. , 3rd Edition
Classical Electrodynamics Nightmare!

Classical Electrodynamics Third Edition
John David Jackson
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 047130932X

Book Description

A revision of the defining book covering the physics and classical mathematics necessary to understand electromagnetic fields in materials and at surfaces and interfaces. The third edition has been revised to address the changes in emphasis and applications that have occurred in the past twenty years.

Customer Reviews:

The emperor is naked.......2007-07-25

This is terrible textbook. Jackson has no idea how to present material so that you can use it to solve real world problems. He should be covered in sackcloth and ashes.
Dr Val

canon.......2007-06-09

If you are a physics graduate student, you probably will encounter this book at some point. Everyone tries to pidgeonhole it: space physicist want it to focus on plasma physics, string theorists want it to focus more on field theory, etc. When you take average focus of so many disparate groups of physicists, you get the book that has actually been written! Even for a such a specialize audience. Jackson is as general as possible. I commend him for it!

Jackson is not a pedagogical text........2007-04-13

Jackson's book is the gold standard, bar none, for *reference* textbooks on E&M. That's why you will find at least one copy in the office of every physics professor and most physics grad students in the English-speaking world. It is not and was clearly never intended to be a pedagogical device, however, so pray to your deity of choice that you have an outstanding teacher to guide you through it. You can't really call yourself a physicist unless you've slogged through it in a grad E&M class, because everybody else before you did it too. Good luck!

A Review of "Classical Electrodynamics", Jackson, J. D. , 3rd Edition.......2007-03-14

This large book (808 pages) is an excellent text for its intended purpose, which is for classroom training of graduate-level physicists in electromagnetics. The study of magnetism and its effects is a very large one, and no single book could cover the entire field. One might perhaps divide the subject into two overlapping parts, low-frequency and high-frequency. The first covers such things as motors, actuators, solenoids (solenoidal actuators), permanent magnets, and such, where the material properties are often nonlinear and the displacement vector D of Maxwell's equations is not significant. The other, high-frequency, is the realm of this book, involving radio, microwaves, light, etc. where the displacement vector must be used and where the properties are assumed to be linear. It makes extensive use of advanced mathematics such as vector calculus, Greene's functions, spherical harmonics, Bessel functions, and the Hamiltonian. The book lightly mentions such subjects as relaxation (finite-difference), finite-element methods and eddy current effects, but discusses extensively the relationship between Einstein's theory of relativity and electromagnetics ( about a third of the book). Before buying this book, it might be best to determine that its particular emphasis fits the reader's needs.

Classical Electrodynamics Nightmare!.......2007-03-04

This book is the hardest book I have ever encountered in my electrical engineering experience. I have to relearn the electrodynamics theory in CGS units and form the physicist perspective. Jackson is famous for his nearly impossible to solve problems as well as his abstract derivations throughout the book. At least I ended up with an A in the course after a semester's hard work.

Computational Electrodynamics: The Finite-Difference Time-Domain Method, Third Edition

Average customer rating:

Brilliant textbook on computational EM
The book for FDTD
Agree with Prior Reviewer
A good overview of FD-TD method

Computational Electrodynamics: The Finite-Difference Time-Domain Method, Third Edition
Allen Taflove , and Susan C. Hagness
Manufacturer: Artech House Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1580538320

Book Description

This extensively revised and expanded third edition of the Artech House bestseller, Computational Electrodynamics: The Finite-Difference Time-Domain Method, offers you the most up-to-date and definitive resource on this critical method for solving Maxwell's equations. There has been considerable advancement in FDTD computational technology over the past few years, and this new edition brings you the very latest details with four new invited chapters on advanced techniques for PSTD, unconditional stability, provably stable FDTD-FETD hybrids, and hardware acceleration. Moreover, you find many completely new sections throughout the book, including major updates on convolutional PML ABCs; dispersive, nonlinear, classical-gain, and quantum-gain materials; and micro-, nano-, and bio- photonics.

This single resource provides complete guidance on FDTD techniques and applications, from basic concepts, to the current state-of-the-art. It enables you to more efficiently and effectively design and analyze key electronics and photonics technologies, including wireless communications devices, high-speed digital and microwave circuits, and integrated optics. You find sample FDTD codes written in Matlab® that serve as a self-guided refresher, and examples of how to use the FDTD method on a wide range of projects in the field. What's more, to supplement the third edition, the authors and publisher have created a Website where you can find solutions to the problems, sample FDTD PML codes, text updates/errata, and downloadable color graphics and videos. Consequently, this new edition is the ideal textbook for both a senior-year undergraduate elective course and a graduate course in computational electrodynamics.

Customer Reviews:

Brilliant textbook on computational EM.......2007-02-04

This is THE STANDARD reference on FDTD methods in computational electrodynamics. Moreover, even if time-domain is not your main thing but you still work with computational EM, add this to your library. It is wonderfully written, simultaneously easy to read and deeply comprehensive. You can get your own codes going by reading this book. After applying the things you learn here you will have a renewed inspiration in Maxwell's equations and E&M.

The book for FDTD.......2005-11-09

This book is an excellent and thoroughly enjoyable reference/tutorial. The book is suitable for use in an advanced undergraduate/first-year graduate class with a prerequisite of one semester of undergraduate E&M. (The authors' preface indicates that this prerequisite is not entirely necessary, but I don't see how you could understand what is going on without it.)

The book can also be used for self-study. In this vein, the book's website contains 1d-, 2d-, and 3d-matlab scripts that are excellent for learning how to actually implement all of this stuff. The third edition weighs in at just over 1000 pages with a price tag of $139, which is $10 cheaper than the 2nd edition was when it came out.

Allen Taflove is, perhaps, the leader in the development and use of this technique. Allen is now at Northwestern. Susan Hagness was a recent PhD student of his (1998) and is now an associate professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering department at the University of Wisconsin. The authors are at the forefront in the development of applications.

The third edition is significantly larger than the 2nd edition and includes several applications chapters that were cowritten with the major researchers in the field. The extraordinary explosion of application areas for FDTD is captured in the later chapters, and these chapters give students and new researchers a clear flavor of the vitality and interest in the field which extends from the detection of breast cancer to ELF pulses produced by earthquakes. It is refreshing to find authors who so readily give credit to others in their field. Taflove and Hagness have been very gracious in this regard, and as a consequence have a much better book and a very detailed and useful bibliography.

I very heartily recommend this book to anyone who wishes to use FDTD techniques.

Agree with Prior Reviewer.......2002-09-21

I cannot quite honestly give this book (*first* edition, not second) a full five-point-zero stars because it somewhat comes apart the closer one gets to the final chapters. I read this book a few years ago, so I apologize for lack of specificity. However, I completely agree with the prior reviewer who stated that this book is better than Kunz's and Luebbers' book, which I appears to be a slightly edited compilation of previous publications --- even if that is completely untrue. In fact, in my opinion, Taflove's book (again, first edition) is a *much* better textbook than Kunz and Luebbers.

The Book News review is somewhat misleading. Taflove derives the difference equations in full, painstaking detail. (Perhaps the Book News reviewer fell asleep during that portion.) For me, this was the most valuable and educational portion of the book. Example applications have their place, but only after understanding the basic principles. Taflove did an excellent job in describing these principles, which go far beyond the basic Yee algorithm (e.g. extrapolation techniques and incorporation of BC's). Those readers familiar with other FD books should understand what I'm saying here: Anyone who reads this book and understands it will not only be conversant about FDTD but should also be able to write solid working codes. With the K&L book, this is very questionable.

A good overview of FD-TD method.......2000-05-25

A good intro book for the FD-TD method with many applications. The list of references at the end of each chapter is also very useful. Some of the material is now outdated and needs corrections, but otherwise a great reference for CEM. I would recommend this book over the Kunz & Luebbers FD-TD book.

Average customer rating:

Excellent book for beginning graduate students
The former review is for the wrong book.
Challenging but well worth the effort for motivated students

Classical Electromagnetic Radiation
Mark A. Heald , and Jerry B. Marion
Manufacturer: Brooks Cole
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Classical Dynamics of Particles and Systems
Introduction to Electrodynamics (3rd Edition)
$Introduction to Diffraction in Materials Science and Engineering$ Introduction to Diffraction in Materials Science and Engineering
Fundamentals of Statistical and Thermal Physics (McGraw-Hill Series in Fundamentals of Physics)
Spacetime Physics

ASIN: 0030972779

Book Description

The revision of this highly acclaimed text is designed for use in advanced physics courses--intermediate level juniors or first year graduates. Basic knowledge of vector calculus and Fourier analysis is assumed. In this edition, a very accessible macroscopic view of classical electromagnetics is presented with emphasis on integrating electromagnetic theory with physical optics. The presentation follows the historical development of physics, culminating in the final chapter, which uses four-vector relativity to fully integrate electricity with magnetism.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent book for beginning graduate students.......2003-12-20

This book covers many important topics in electromagnetic theory including many areas in Optics, like diffraction,..etc. It fills a gap between the undergrad text books and the more advance graduate EM texts (like Jackson's,.. etc). The materials are easy to follow and understand with no lack of mathematical rigors.
Execllent text for beginning graduate students.

The former review is for the wrong book........2001-06-19

Hi folks I just wrote this to caution you that the former reviewer is inadverently reviewing the MECHANICS book by the same author. To be short I would give this book four stars. It does a little bit of static phenomena and boundary value problems and jumps to radiation justifying the title. The level of the book is in between a grad course and an undergrad course. I think it is ideal for self study for grad students.

Challenging but well worth the effort for motivated students.......1999-06-20

An excellent textbook on classical dynamics for the 'grown-up' student who wants mathematical rigor along with physical insights. Working through this book requires considerable effort and thought on the student's part, but is well worth the time spent. Highly recommended for the serious student who is not afraid of hard work.

A Guide to Physics Problems, Part 1: Mechanics, Relativity, and Electrodynamics (The Language of Science)

Average customer rating:

classical physics quals
Great book for all budding physicists
A excellent collection of intriguing physics problems
good

A Guide to Physics Problems, Part 1: Mechanics, Relativity, and Electrodynamics (The Language of Science)
Sidney B. Cahn , and Boris E. Nadgorny
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Accessories:

ASIN: 0306446790

Book Description

In order to equip hopeful graduate students with the knowledge necessary to pass the qualifying examination, the authors have assembled and solved standard and original problems from major American universities – Boston University, University of Chicago, University of Colorado at Boulder, Columbia, University of Maryland, University of Michigan, Michigan State, Michigan Tech, MIT, Princeton, Rutgers, Stanford, Stony Brook, University of Wisconsin at Madison – and Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. A wide range of material is covered and comparisons are made between similar problems of different schools to provide the student with enough information to feel comfortable and confident at the exam. Guide to Physics Problems is published in two volumes: this book, Part 1, covers Mechanics, Relativity and Electrodynamics; Part 2 covers Thermodynamics, Statistical Mechanics and Quantum Mechanics.

Praise for A Guide to Physics Problems: Part 1: Mechanics, Relativity, and Electrodynamics:

"Sidney Cahn and Boris Nadgorny have energetically collected and presented solutions to about 140 problems from the exams at many universities in the United States and one university in Russia, the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. Some of the problems are quite easy, others are quite tough; some are routine, others ingenious." (From the Foreword by C. N. Yang, Nobelist in Physics, 1957)

"Generations of graduate students will be grateful for its existence as they prepare for this major hurdle in their careers." (R. Shankar, Yale University)

"The publication of the volume should be of great help to future candidates who must pass this type of exam." (J. Robert Schrieffer, Nobelist in Physics, 1972)

"I was positively impressed … The book will be useful to students who are studying for their examinations and to faculty who are searching for appropriate problems." (M. L. Cohen, University of California at Berkeley)

"If a student understands how to solve these problems, they have gone a long way toward mastering the subject matter." (Martin Olsson, University of Wisconsin at Madison)

"This book will become a necessary study guide for graduate students while they prepare for their Ph.D. examination. It will become equally useful for the faculty who write the questions." (G. D. Mahan, University of Tennessee at Knoxville)

Customer Reviews:

classical physics quals.......2004-10-22

I used this book to pass my classical physics quals at caltech. See my review of Cahn's quantum problem book for details, and why I think this is better than Yung-kuo.
The difference with the classical one is that there were a few concepts I had to study that were not really in the book. Overall though, I still thought that this was a great collection of problems. If I had just done the problems in this book and nothing else, I probably still would have passed.

Great book for all budding physicists.......2001-09-25

This book is rather elementary for the graduate level, but does a great job at explaining concepts clearly, concisely, and eloquently, using laymen terms where appropriate. I also deeply appreciate the occasional comedy implemented by the author. I would personally recommend "The Essential Collection of Elegant Solutions for Doctoral Physics Qualifying Exams," by Shijun Liu (2000).

A excellent collection of intriguing physics problems.......1999-10-08

This book contains physics problems from many great universities and is a must for all students in Physics. The problems are all very original and the solutions given are very elegant. I will recommend this book to all people who enjoy solving Physics problems.

good.......1999-03-10

Relativity Par

Quantum Electrodynamics, Second Edition: Volume 4

Average customer rating:

very physical book
A good introduction
A COMPLETE BOOK ON QUANTUM ELECTRODYNAMICS
Theory and applications presented with great skill

Quantum Electrodynamics, Second Edition: Volume 4
E M Lifshitz , L P Pitaevskii , and V B Berestetskii
Manufacturer: Butterworth-Heinemann
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0750633719

Book Description

Several significant additions have been made to the second edition, including the operator method of calculating the bremsstrahlung cross-section, the calcualtion of the probabilities of photon-induced pair production and photon decay in a magnetic
field, the asymptotic form of the scattering amplitudes at high energies, inelastic scattering of electrons by hadrons, and the transformation of electron-positron pairs into hadrons.

Customer Reviews:

very physical book.......2006-01-14

I mean a very physical book in the sense that it takes all the matters with the point of view of physical insight. The treatment of bosons and fermions is quick clear and it seems like a sleight of hand trick. The interaction of matter and radiation is one, perhaps old fashion, complete source of actual calculus difficult to obtain in other sources. Other topics about perturbative calculations and feynman diagrams is also very clear and straightforward to the mater itself. I recommend the book to all students in the graduate level, thougth a very russian style is a must for the great style lovers.

A good introduction.......2003-09-29

This book gives a solid introduction to the simplest of gauge theories, that of the Abelian gauge field governing the interactions between photons and charged particles. The emphasis is on doing calculations, and so readers who need a more in-depth mathematical or "foundational" overview of quantum electrodynamics may be disappointed. Quantum field theory of course was not founded on the need for mathematical rigor in physics, but instead has its origins in reconciling quantum mechanics with the theory of special relativity. This reconciliation has sometimes been a rough road, and in many places employs some sophisticated but eccentric "trickery" on the part of the researchers. It is these tricks that are the most difficult to generalize, to the annoyance of mathematicians who want to put quantum field theory on a more rigorous mathematical foundation. But in spite of the use of these oddities quantum field theory is not magical, and has proven to be one of the most precise physical theories ever constructed.

Some of the highlights of the book:

1. The chapter on exact propogators and vertex parts is particularly illuminating, especially the discussions on Dyson's equation, Ward's identity, and the physical conditions needed for renormalization. Dyson's equation relates the vertex part to the exact propagator, and the authors derive it using two different approaches in the book: one using the concepts of reducible and irreducible diagrams, the other using direct calculation and taking the Fourier transform. Readers who go on in quantum field theory will find that this equation is usually called the Dyson-Schwinger equation and can be derived using "functional methods." Ward's identity is a relation that connects the momentum derivative of the electron propagator to the vertex part, but can derived solely by using gauge invariance. Applying a gauge transformation to the electron propagator will result in an expression involving an external (photon) field. This expression though has a contribution coming from photons with longitudinal components in their momentum, but the expression is shown to vanish. Hence, as expected, gauge invariance results in an electron propagator that does not involve massive photon fields, and its momentum derivatives are equal to the vertex part. The authors point out that this identity generalizes the expression for the case of the free-particle propagator.

2. The discussion on the radiative corrections to Coulomb's law, resulting from the "polarization of the vacuum" around a point charge. The corrections are done via the use of an "effective field", thus introducing the reader to a very common approach these days. After taking Fourier transforms the authors show that the polarization of the vacuum alters the Coulomb field in a region inversely proportional to the electron mass. Beyond this region the change drops off exponentially. The authors point out though that they have ignored the contributions of pions and muons in their calculation of the correction. At distances less than one over the muon (or pion) mass, the strong interaction must be taken into account and quantum electrodynamics breaks down.

3. The discussion on photon-photon scattering, which is a strictly quantum effect since it cannot occur in classical electrodynamics, due to the linearity of Maxwell's equations. It is the electron-positron annihilation which is responsible for this effect, and this is one example of the matter-antimatter duality that seems to always occur in quantum theories that must respect the principle of relativity (although, strictly speaking, another assumption, called "cluster decomposition" is needed to show this in a convincing way).

4. The (short) chapter on hadron electrodynamics, with "electromagnetic form factors" used to finesse the problem of the strong interaction. One thus gets a purely phenomonological theory, but one that still allows the calculation of electron-hadron and photon-hadron scattering.

A COMPLETE BOOK ON QUANTUM ELECTRODYNAMICS.......1998-07-23

This is the Volume 4 of the famous Course of Theoretical Physics by L. D. Landau and E. M. Lifshitz. All serious students of theoretical physics must possess the ten volumes of this excellent Course, which cover in detail and rigour practically all the branches of theoretical physics. The Volume 4 treats the subject of quantum electrodynamics. It contains all of basic material on quantum electrodynamics and the whole of the theory of radiation. This book, although very dense, describes with clarity the large amount of topics contained in it and does not include topics not firmly established, such as the theory of strong and weak interactions. All physicists specialized in quantum electrodynamics must possess this remarkable book. A superb book!

Theory and applications presented with great skill.......1998-07-21

This is an outstanding book. The former students of the great Russian physicist Lev Landau wrote a text based on his teaching and his papers, as well as on their own work. The result fits well in the magnificent Theoretical Physics course that carries the names of Landau and Lifshitz. There are differences between this text and the western analogues. Dirac equation is derived in a very elegant way using spinors, and the whole algebra of Dirac matrices becomes, in this way, much more natural, particularly, as one would expect, Lorentz invariance. The renormalization problem is treated in a very lucid way. The derivation of the Ward identities is very simple and amusing. High energy limits are treated in the Landau style, and well complements the more formal derivations based on the renormalization group. No book presents as many applications of quantum electrodynamics as this one, except perhaps, the old and dated book by Heitler.

Electrodynamics of Continuous Media, Second Edition: Volume 8 (Course of Theoretical Physics)

Average customer rating:

an invaluable reference!
Russian School of Physics
The BEST
A masterpiece.
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS ON MACROSCOPIC ELECTRODYNAMICS!

Electrodynamics of Continuous Media, Second Edition: Volume 8 (Course of Theoretical Physics)
E M Lifshitz , L D Landau , and L P Pitaevskii
Manufacturer: Butterworth-Heinemann
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0750626348

Book Description

Covers the theory of electromagnetic fields in matter, and the theory of macroscopic electric and magnetic properties of matter. There is a considerable amount of new material particularly on the theory of the magnetic properties of matter and the theory
of optical phenomena with new chapters on spatial dispersion and non-linear optics.

Customer Reviews:

an invaluable reference!.......2006-07-18

What can I say? There are 9 copies of this book in the library of my university and 8 of them have been checked out. The only one left is a reserved copy. And right now it's in the middle of a summer vacation! So many things that I want to know can be found in this book: the difference between Kerr effect and Faraday effect, the magneto-electric tensor, magnetic symmetries of crystals... etc. The explanations are usually very compact but extremely clear. Once many years ago I was frustrated at being unable to find a "physicist's description" of the galvanic cell. Finally, after searching many books and papers, I found a most satisfying explanation, exactly the way I needed it, in this book. It is an invaluable "reference" (but not textbook) for researchers working on material science, light-matter interactions, and related fields.

Russian School of Physics.......2006-03-27

This book has few uses. The book is so abbreviated that you need two other books to understand it. The one useful feature of this book is the problems with solutions, but even those take a lot of deciphering.

The BEST.......2000-05-16

It the best. I mean the whole course. If you can read Russian buy the original book - they are very very cheap (hardbound): a couple of dollars.

A masterpiece........1998-10-02

In the beginning there was ether. Then Maxwell discovered his wonderful equations and Einstein, drawing inspiration therefrom, discovered Relativity. There was no longer an ether. Thank God! For, before, every electric, magnetic and optical phenomenon was supposed to be explained by properties of this ubiquitous ether. For a brilliant account of the physics of the ether, read "Aether", by Maxwell himself, at the Encyclopaedia Britannica (not the present edition: go to* and look at the Classics). Since Lorentz it became fashionable, and sensible, to, first, derive all properties of the electromagnetic fiel in vacuum, and, then, to introduce matter and the complications which appear (and which give rise to most of the beauty of the world). This wonderful book deals with these complications, and shows the beauties that come out of them. This is a high class text, the reader being supposed to know all of basic physics, including, of course, quantum mechanics. Thermodynamics is used lavishly for static or quasi-static situations, providing depth and cohesion. Did you know that you cannot, in this age of new materials, concoct one with electric permittivity (the familiar epsilon) smaller than one lest you violate the second law of thermodynamics? The chapter on electromagnetic waves is superb, with the best treatment of light dispersion to be found anywhere. Did you know that you cannot produce a transparent material which would disperse light in a different sequence of colours than that of the usual glass prism lest you violate causality? You have to read this book. Grab your copy while you can find it. One never knows.

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS ON MACROSCOPIC ELECTRODYNAMICS!.......1998-07-24

This is the Volume 8 of the famous Course of Theoretical Physics by L. D. Landau and E. M. Lifshitz. All serious students of theoretical physics must possess the ten volumes of this excellent Course, which cover in detail and rigour practically all the branches of theoretical physics. The Volume 8 treats the subject of the electromagnetic fields in matter, or the macroscopic electrodynamics. The book contains all the basic theory of macroscopic electrodynamics, discussing at the same time some more specialized and very interesting topics. The discussion is rigorous and very detailed, with clarity of exposition. There exists also in this book chapters not usually found in other similar books, such as the chapters on the dynamics of magnetic fluids, the theory of the interaction of fast particles with matter(for example, the Cerenkov radiation), the macroscopic theory of superconductivity and the theory of diffraction of X rays in crystals. There exists a little appendice! on curvilinear coordinates, which serves to auxiliate the reader in the mathematical calculations. Moreover, the authors discuss in a very elegant manner mathematical methods for solving problems in electrostatics, such as for example the method of conformal mapping. Certainly one of the best books on macroscopic electrodynamics!

QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter (Princeton Science Library)

Average customer rating:

A wonderful little book!
Finally understood refraction
I want to love this book but can't
Very readable.
Quantum mechanics for the intelligent layman

QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter (Princeton Science Library)
Richard P. Feynman
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0691125759

Book Description

Celebrated for his brilliantly quirky insights into the physical world, Nobel laureate Richard Feynman also possessed an extraordinary talent for explaining difficult concepts to the general public. Here Feynman provides a classic and definitive introduction to QED (namely quantum electrodynamics), that part of quantum field theory describing the interactions of light with charged particles. Using everyday language, spatial concepts, visualizations, and his renowned "Feynman diagrams" instead of advanced mathematics, Feynman clearly and humorously communicates both the substance and spirit of QED to the layperson. A. Zee's new introduction places both Feynman's book and his seminal contribution to QED in historical context and further highlights Feynman's uniquely appealing and illuminating style.

Customer Reviews:

A wonderful little book!.......2007-07-15

In his Introduction to this wonderful "extra-difficult popular book ", A.Zee divides its prospective readers in three groups:1)-students who might be inspired by this book to go on and master QED.2)- intelligent laypersons curious about QED and 3)-professional physicists. Personally, I fall between groups 1 and 2: I have been a "student" of physics all my life, but at the same time I'm just a "layperson", since physics is not my specialty.
Having said that, I consider that Feynman has succeeded in conveying the basic ideas of QED to the "intelligent layperson", but I also believe that very few laypersons will finish reading this book. On the other hand, whoever finishes reading it properly, "mulling over each sentence carefully", would end up having a correct understanding of QED. And Feynman accomplishes this feat without once mentioning fermions, bosons or leptons! He makes an exception for baryons, though!
Of course, things would become much easier when the reader has some mathematical background, like knowing what vectors and complex numbers are. Then he or she will know how to add two "Feynman arrows" without there being any need to tell him or her to "attach the head of one arrow to the tail of another". The reader would also know that "shrinking and turning" is nothing but the multiplication of two complex numbers!
There is also one thing I would like to point out about Feynman's remark at page 15 regarding the behavior of light as particles("I'm telling you the way it does behave-like particles.")Those little Feynman arrows, turning and stopping between two points of a path, why do they turn at different speeds for different colors? Neither Feynman nor QED tells us anything about it, and it remains a mystery. For me, those arrows are nothing but the old "Fresnel vectors", that are used to represent a sinusoidal function of time in old classical physics. The length of the vector is the amplitude of the sinewave, and its projection on the reference axis gives the value of that function at any given time. As for the angular speed of rotation, it is the frequency of that sinewave times 2 pi. I cannot understand light or electromagnetic fields without this concept of frequency, and consequently of wavelength: this is why the stopwatch turns faster for blue than for red light. Besides, waves are used in Quantum Field Theories to represent all elementary particles, so why not photons as well? And what happened to the old W=h.c/lambda, if there be no more lambda?And how does one explain the Doppler effect and the cosmological redshift without a wave? Feynman probably would have been able to find an explanation of these effects without resorting to the wave concept, but there are very few Feynmans around...So dear reader, if you know how to explain the Doppler shift without using waves, please let me know!
All in all, this book is a must read for all those who are curious about modern physics, but who cannot understand the "real thing", with all its details and equations. This is why I strongly recommend it.

Finally understood refraction.......2007-04-17

When I was a senior in high school, I asked my physics teacher why light bent when it entered a lens. He responded with an analogy about soldiers marching on a field and entering a marsh. The first soldiers entering the marsh would slow down and "bend" the column until all the soldiers were in the marsh.

The analogy made no sense to me because we were talking about light, not soldiers. He responded that light travels in waves and if I viewed the soldiers as a wave front, I could understand his analogy. I left the conversation feeling very stupid for not "getting it." and thinking the analogy had so many holes in it. For example, it didn't explain why the lens was a marsh as far as light goes.

It wasn't until I read QED that I realized I didn't get the soldier analogy because my teacher was wrong - light doesn't travel in waves, it travels in discrete little packets called photons.

In QED, Feynman opens his first chapter by saying a couple of things. First he tells you that the theory he's going to describe to you has been experimentally verified out to 10 decimal places so it's probably right. He then gives you a quick review of what matter is and then tells you "light comes in particles. Not waves, particles." No wavicles, just little bits of light. He tells you that photons go from place to place, an electron goes from place to place and the electron will sometimes either absorb or emit a photon. From that basis, the rest of the book shows how that model explains why light bends when it enters a lens, why mirrors reflect, why oil slicks show different colors, why peacock feathers iridesce along a with host of other phenomena. He also explains why light has wave-like properties despite the fact that light comes in packets.

The first reviewer is right - there are questions left unanswered but that doesn't diminish the book. The framework Feynman develops in four chapters gives you a clear mental image of what's going on. Bohr and Pauli disliked Feynman's approach because it violated the Copenhagen approach of eschewing all models. In their view, only mathematics would suffice to understand quantum mechanics. I for one, am very glad Feynman ignored them, developed his approach and eventually gave the 4 lectures that are the basis of the book.

If you think light travels in waves, read this book. It's truly wonderful. If you're as dumb as I am, you'll have to read it multiple times but it's definitely worth it.

I want to love this book but can't.......2007-04-11

Yes the book explains QED without any math, but it doesn't really explain it very well. I admire what Feynman is trying to do, but I don't believe he succeeds. I'll give one example. The book is built around using vector addition and multiplication to show how to come up with probability sums and products. So far so good. The problem is that we never get an explanation for why the vectors point the way the do, are rotated just so, etc. Without that it's simply voodoo, and nothing has been explained.
It's not that you'd need math for any of that. You wouldn't. It's not the lack of math that leaves the reader in the dark, it's simply Feynman's not having the time to elaborate given the lecture format. Twenty pages on how waves work and reinforce and cancel etc. would at least provide the frame work for understanding more or less what is going on in the vector spinning.
Feynman certainly made an amazing use of the time he had in the brief lecture series the book is drawn from, but unfortuantely a brief lecture series aimed at the scientifically illiterate is just not a reasonable forum for presenting even a very basic understanding of QED.

Very readable........2007-03-19

Unlike Feynman's lecture series, you'll be able understand every word of the first two of the books three sections. Is a great feeling to understand Feynman.

Quantum mechanics for the intelligent layman.......2007-02-17

This book has to be the ultimate proof that if you really understand something, you can explain it to anyone willing to listen carefully.

Most people would agree that Quantum Mechanics is the most complex idea ever. Here, the idea is presented accurately, but without any scientific or mathematical jargon. It's just amazing that this is possible.

Mathematica for Theoretical Physics: Electrodynamics, Quantum Mechanics, General Relativity, and Fractals

Average customer rating:

A very good book

Mathematica for Theoretical Physics: Electrodynamics, Quantum Mechanics, General Relativity, and Fractals
Gerd Baumann
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0387219331

Book Description

This second edition of Baumann's Mathematica ^® for Theoretical Physics shows readers how to solve physical problems and deal with their underlying theoretical concepts while using Mathematica ^® to derive numeric and symbolic solutions. Each example and calculation can be evaluated by the reader, and the reader can change the example calculations and adopt the given code to related or similar problems.

The second edition has been completely revised and expanded into two volumes: The first volume covers classical mechanics and nonlinear dynamics. Both topics are the basis of a regular mechanics course. The second volume covers electrodynamics, quantum mechanics, relativity, and fractals and fractional calculus.

New examples have been added and the representation has been reworked to provide a more interactive problem-solving presentation. This book can be used as a textbook or as a reference work, by students and researchers alike. A brief glossary of terms and functions is contained in the appendices.

The CD-ROM accompanying each of the two volumes contains Mathematica ^®notebooks as well as Mathematica ^® programs. The notebooks contain the entire text of the corresponding volume and can interface with Mathematica ^®. The examples given in the text can also be interactively used and changed for the reader’s purposes.

The Author, Gerd Baumann, is affiliated with the Mathematical Physics Division of the University of Ulm, Germany, where he is professor. He is the author of Symmetry Analysis of Differential Equations with Mathematica ^®. Dr. Baumann has given numerous invited talks at universities and industry alike. He regularly hosts seminars and lectures on symbolic computing at the University of Ulm and at Technische Universität München (TUM), Munich.

Customer Reviews:

A very good book.......2006-03-24

This is a very good book in it's subject. The examples taken from Quantum Mechanics ,Fractals and General Relativity are quite impressive.But I would expect even more problems taken from the field of Electrodynamics.I think that this book is a"must have" for anyone who's interesting in computational methods for solving basic problems of theoretical physics.

QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter

Average customer rating:

Mind-blowing
Just the facts, Ma'am
The shortest, clearest and "most physical" description of quantum theory without compromise in the accuracy
Whew! Worth the effort...
Feynman's Nobel prize winning subject, QED.

QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter
Richard P. Feynman
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0691024170

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Famous the world over for the creative brilliance of his insights into the physical world, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman also possessed an extraordinary talent for explaining difficult concepts to the nonscientist. QED--the edited version of four lectures on quantum electrodynamics that Feynman gave to the general public at UCLA as part of the Alix G. Mautner Memorial Lecture series--is perhaps the best example of his ability to communicate both the substance and the spirit of science to the layperson.

The focus, as the title suggests, is quantum electrodynamics (QED), the part of the quantum theory of fields that describes the interactions of the quanta of the electromagnetic field-light, X rays, gamma rays--with matter and those of charged particles with one another. By extending the formalism developed by Dirac in 1933, which related quantum and classical descriptions of the motion of particles, Feynman revolutionized the quantum mechanical understanding of the nature of particles and waves. And, by incorporating his own readily visualizable formulation of quantum mechanics, Feynman created a diagrammatic version of QED that made calculations much simpler and also provided visual insights into the mechanisms of quantum electrodynamic processes.

In this book, using everyday language, spatial concepts, visualizations, and his renowned "Feynman diagrams" instead of advanced mathematics, Feynman successfully provides a definitive introduction to QED for a lay readership without any distortion of the basic science. Characterized by Feynman's famously original clarity and humor, this popular book on QED has not been equaled since its publication.

Customer Reviews:

Mind-blowing.......2006-12-10

Feynman makes it easy for the curious amateur to understand. This book is accessible and mind-blowing. Everyone should read it. And there is little if any math so don't be intimidated.

Just the facts, Ma'am.......2006-08-07

In the Introduction to the 'Strange Theory of Light and Matter' Feynman tells us that what he likes to talk about is the "part of physics that is known, rather than a part that is unknown." And he goes on to give us a thumbnail sketch, a "physicist's history of physics," which shows how physicist's, in their quest to describe the world, continually reduce a group of seemingly unrelated phenomenon to a single phenomenon. So heat and sound were found, thanks to Newton, to be reducible to laws of motion, while electricity, magnetism and light were reducible to Maxwell's electromagnetic wave. In this way physicist's explain the world.

Here one is almost tempted to say that they proceed much as religion and ideology do. Religion has from the beginning of recorded history been taking phenomenon and feelings, like storms and suffering or aging and despair, and molding them into an internally coherent explanation of all that is and was and will be. They do this by separating the relevant from the incidental, then uncovering the essential by excluding the accidental. They simplify. In similar ways ideologues like the communists take what at one time were discreet incidents and disparate facts (for instance, the poverty of the third world and imperialism) and weave them into a grand general explanation. Is science merely the latest avatar of religion? - Or perhaps it is an ideology without tears?

Not so fast! Feynman goes on to show us that attempts to explain the atomic world foundered on the laws of motion. He shows us that the rescue of those shipwrecked on the shoals of classical theory involved the invention of a new, counter-intuitive theory, Quantum Mechanics. He then goes on, while discussing a small portion of that theory, to give us the (deliberately) hilarious and 'absurd' example of how physicists predict how many photons, out of a given number, will be reflected back from a surface. 'Draw little arrows on a piece of paper' and watch the clock, he tells us. And with no explanation as to why this procedure works! Of course, for physics, what matters is that it does work. Physicists have been forced "away from making absolute predictions to merely calculating the probability of an event." But where is the essential, the eternal, the necessary?

Perhaps this is what Feynman is driving at. Science describes, it doesn't explain why. We should all wonder at that. The great 'philosophical' questions that drive theology and political ideology are beyond the purview of physics. Science doesn't create worlds; nor does it 'interpret' or change them, it simply describes what it finds. (It is technology that changes the world.) Freud saw fit to end one of his books by saying that 'our science is no illusion, but it would be an illusion to believe you can find elsewhere what it does not offer.' But how much truer this is of physics! One is then perhaps not surprised to come away from this little book wondering exactly what the status of philosophy, psychoanalysis, politics and religion would be in a genuinely scientific world.

But of course there will never be, given human irrationality, an entirely scientific human culture. This book is a superb introduction to quantum electrodynamics. It's 'experimentalism' and agnosticism towards grand philosophical explanations I found very congenial and convincing. Feynman is an engaging personality and this is an entertaining book. While one doesn't need a degree in physics and math to understand him a lay competence and interest in math and physics is certainly necessary. For those of us still living in a Newtonian world, a dwindling number to be sure, this book will have several surprising moments. But that really is part of the show!

The shortest, clearest and "most physical" description of quantum theory without compromise in the accuracy.......2006-01-21

I had read a few books on quantium physics before, some are serious textbooks, and some are books for general readers, without even a single equation. This book, catagorized as the latter case, is the shortest, clearest and "most physical" description I've ever read.

It really tells you what the physicsts are doing behind the equations. I felt I solved many of the puzzles I had before, especially the intuitive meaning of the wave function and how the amplitudes really combine "visually".

It's a must read if you have tried other books on quantum theory but get confused (which I think is very likely). One major difference of this book from other books is Feynman didn't try to invent analogous but confusing things to explain difficult concepts. He really introduces you the subject itself.

Whew! Worth the effort..........2005-12-23

Feynman believed that if you truly understand a concept than you should be able to express it in a way that any educated person can understand it. Thus you have a smallish book (based on lectures) on some of the most obtuse subjects in physics in a way that is entertaining, readable, and understandable.

This is no "Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman" (if you haven't read it you should...) but still shows his wit and curiosity. One reason I think the book is so good is that he was instrumental in working out many of the ideas he presents so he's not just repeating someone else's work.

The concepts can be hard to grasp but the book is well worth the trouble.

Feynman's Nobel prize winning subject, QED........2005-09-15

This book is basically a transcript of a series of lectures Professor Feynman gave at UCLA and in New Zealand. The lectures were given at the University of Auckland in New Zealand because Feynman wanted to "try out" the lectures on people far from home to see if they would work. [...] The book QED attempts successfully to give the reader an idea of how light works at a fundamental level and is actually very weird and untuitive due to our inherited and evolved senses and perception. Feynman preps the reader to anticipate these very strange unintuitive scientific findings and goes on to explain them very well.

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