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Anonymous
Posted March 18, 2008
According to some other reviews this text makes an excellent reference for professionals. However, they've already taken the tests, and been through the classes. In short they already have their Phd. If you know the majority of readers of your book are coming to you to improve their understanding or learn entirely new material, why would you make difficult stuff even harder by intentionally omitting derivation steps in every section of every chapter. With the deadlines and time constraints associated with student life it's almost impossible to get through all the difficult derivations in the reading before even getting to the sometimes insane problems in a reasonable time. Either try to make the reading as clear as possible, and the problems challenging, or reduce the difficulty of the problems and have the reading challenging like it is now, but don't challenge the usually involuntary student readers with both difficulties. I may change my opinion later, but for now I feel that the level of difficulty and style of this text is based largely on the cruelty of the author.
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Posted January 31, 2003
I fail to see how this book has come to be known as a standard for graduate level classical E&M. I feel it lack detail and rigour. It omits relevent steps in derivations leaving the student with a feeling of "What the heck is going on." In my undergraduate course I had Intro to Electrodynamics by David Griffiths, I fee that book does a far better job than Jackson. Griffiths appears more detailed oriented, has more depth than Jackson does.
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Posted October 22, 2001
I realy fail to understand how this textbook has maintained its status as a standard graduate electrodynamics text! There are other texts out there that cover the material sooo much better, so look around. Jackson tends to omit pertinent steps in his derivations leaving the student with the'What the #$@! is going on?' feeling.The book could really use example problems considering the difficulty of the material. Well considering the price of the text versus what it delivers, you will pretty much end up with a $90 doorstop. AVOID THIS TEXTBOOK!!!!!
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Posted November 1, 2001
This book does a phenomenal job of clearly explaining and demonstrating topics in EM. I studied it as a text book in 3rd year undergraduate physics. It's probably the best book ever on the topic. It's considered a standard and so it should.
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Posted January 31, 2001
This book is a standard text in graduate school. If you really like theoretical physics and you have 48 hours in a day, this is the best book. Life is short. You have something else. Even though you can solve all his problems, you can't publish even a paper. Don't waste your time for this book!! Many young students are bothered by this 'standard' text. Is your school the place to make a problem solver or a scientist?
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Posted November 11, 2000
This is the best overall book I've seen on classical electrodynamics. While it does not cover everything you could ever want to know about the topic, it certainly comes close. I have never been assigned a homework problem at the undergraduate or graduate level in electricity & magnetism that could not be answered by applying the concepts presented in this text. It is possible that you will find this book difficult if you do not have some mathematical/physical maturity and a good undergraduate level background in the aforementioned topics. I'm certain that those who have given this text an unfavorable rating were such people who were forced into using the book for a graduate course before they were ready for it. With the proper background/prerequisite material, this book is a joy to work through. I must say that the exercises are excellent. You will have a hard time finding similar exercises anywhere else.
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Posted April 13, 2000
Jackson fails to discuss conformal solutions to boundary value problems. This is a sever inadequacy considering the usefulness of conformal mappings in many branches of modern physics.
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Posted March 3, 2000
This is probably the SINGLE BEST graduate text yet the most difficult text to read. Moreover, the end-of-chapter exercises are blood-sucking. However, Jackson fills this new edition with some immortal informations (e.g., special relativity, the classical field theory) that no other book on electrodynamics can compete with. For other readers who have acquainted with advanced calculus, vector analysis, linear algebra, advanced classical mechanics, partial differential equations should give this book a try. I strongly recommend that this book is read side-by-side with GOLDSTEIN's 'Classical Mechanics' and BARUT's 'Electrodynamics And Classical Theory of Fields'. They will give you a PERFECT unified view in electrodynamics.
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Posted January 6, 2000
When I first used this text for my graduate electrodynamics course, I found it confusing and frustrating. Now, that scars have healed, I like Jackson's book as a REFERENCE. It is about as well written as a menu to a truck stop diner, but nevertheless, just as complete. So while I do not retract my admonition that this text must never be considered a great dydactic source, I do urge that every physicist should have a copy of Jackson on the book shelf.
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Posted January 8, 2010
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Anonymous
Posted March 3, 2009
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A textbook for a two-semester beginning graduate course for students who have completed a standard undergraduate program for physics majors. Emphasizes the unity of electric and magnetic phenomena both in their physical basis and the mode of their mathematical description, develops and utilizes a number of tools in mathematical physics, and presents now material on the interaction of relativistic charged particles with electromagnetic fields and other areas. First published in 1962, and again in 1974; the third edition incorporates the slight drifts in emphasis and application the long-established subject has taken over the past couple of decades. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.Product Details
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