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Classical electromagnetism - one of the fundamental pillars of physics - is an important topic for all types of physicists from the theoretical to the applied. The subject is widely recognized to be one of the most challenging areas of the physics curriculum, both for students to learn and for lecturers to teach. Although textbooks on electromagnetism are plentiful, hardly any are written in the question-and-answer style format adopted in this book. It contains nearly 300 worked questions and solutions in classical electromagnetism, and is based on material usually encountered during the course of a standard university physics degree.
Topics covered include some of the background mathematical techniques, electrostatics, magnetostatics, elementary circuit theory, electrodynamics, electromagnetic waves and electromagnetic radiation. For the most part the book deals with the microscopic theory, although we also introduce the important subject of macroscopic electromagnetism as well. Nearly all questions end with a series of comments whose purpose is to stimulate inductive reasoning and reach various important conclusions arising from the problem. Occasionally, points of historical interest are also mentioned. Both analytical and numerical techniques are used in obtaining and analyzing solutions. All computer calculations are performed with MathematicaCO® and the relevant code is provided in a notebook; either in the solution or the comments.
1: Some essential mathematics
2: Static electric fields in vacuum
3: The electrostatics of conductors
4: Static magnetic fields in vacuum
5: Quasi-static electric and magnetic fields in vacuum
6: Ohm's law and electric circuits
7: Electromagnetic fields and waves in vacuum
8: The electromagnetic potentials
9: Static electric and magnetic fields in matter
10: Some applications of Maxwell's equations in matter
11: Electromagnetic radiation
12: Electromagnetism and special relativity
Appendix A: Vectors and Cartesian tensors
Appendix B: Cartesian coordinates
Appendix C: Spherical polar coordinates
Appendix D: Cylindrical polar coordinates
Appendix E: The Dirac delta function
Appendix F: Legendre polynomials
Appendix G: Bessel functions
Appendix H: Parametric representation of a surface
Appendix I: The Cauchy-Riemann equations
Appendix J: Questions involving computational work
Description
Classical electromagnetism - one of the fundamental pillars of physics - is an important topic for all types of physicists from the theoretical to the applied. The subject is widely recognized to be one of the most challenging areas of the physics curriculum, both for students to learn and for lecturers to teach. Although textbooks on electromagnetism are plentiful, hardly any are written in the question-and-answer style format adopted in this book. It contains nearly 300 worked questions and solutions in classical electromagnetism, and is based on material usually encountered during the course of a standard university physics degree.
Topics covered include some of the background mathematical techniques, electrostatics, magnetostatics, elementary circuit theory, electrodynamics, electromagnetic waves and electromagnetic radiation. For the most part the book deals with the microscopic theory, although we also introduce the important subject of macroscopic electromagnetism as well. Nearly all questions end with a series of comments whose purpose is to stimulate inductive reasoning and reach various important conclusions arising from the problem. Occasionally, points of historical interest are also mentioned. Both analytical and numerical techniques are used in obtaining and analyzing solutions. All computer calculations are performed with MathematicaCO® and the relevant code is provided in a notebook; either in the solution or the comments.
