文档介绍：panion to Classical Electrodynamics
3rd Edition by . Jackson
Rudolph J. Magyar
August 6, 2001
c Rudolph J. Magyar. No portion of this may be reproduced for profit
without
the expressed prior written consent of Rudolph J. Magyar.
1
A lot of things can be said about Classical Electrodynamics, the third
edition, by David J. Jackson. It’s seemingly exhaustive, well researched, and
certainly popular. Then, there is a general consensus among teachers that
this book is the definitive graduate text on the subject. In my opinion, this
is quite unfortunate. The text often assumes familiarity with the material,
skips vital steps, and provides too few examples. It is simply not a good
introductory text. On the other hand, Jackson was very ambitious. Aside
from some notable omissions (such as conformal mapping methods), Jackson
exposes the reader to most of classical electro-ic theory. Even Thomas
Aquinas would be impressed! As a reference, Jackson’s book is great!
It is obvious that Jackson knows his stuff, and in no place is this more
apparent than in the problems which he asks at the end of each chapter.
Sometimes the problems are quite simple or routine, other times difficult, and
quite often there will be undaunting amounts of algebra required. Solving
these problems is a time consuming endevour for even the quickest reckoners
among us. I present panion to Jackson as a motivation to other
students. These problems can be done! And it doesn’t take Feynmann to do
them.
Hopefully, with the help of this guide, lots of paper, and your own wits;
you’ll be able to wrestle with the concepts that challenged the greatest minds
of the last century.
Before I begin, I will mend several things which I found useful in
solving these problems.
Buy Griffiths’ text, an Introduction to Electrodynamics. It’s well writ-
• ten and introduces the basic concepts well. This text is at a more basic
level than Jackson, and to be best prepared, you’ll have to find