Field & Wave Electromagnetics

While I took Electromagnetic Fields I & II courses using the first and last half of this text, I also purchased other solutions manuals and texts to survive. This was, to me, by far the most clearly written and well-presented text. 16 years after having taken the course, I'm doing a cover-to-cover review of this book and given my industry experience I appreciate the excellence of this book even more. The downside to using it is that I've found a real difficulty in locating the Solutions Manual, leaving me to use others where there's always changes in variables, ordering, and approaches which build in inefficiencies/overhead.

Many thanx to the author, David Cheng. This book shows a systematically and axiomatically mathematical development of electromagnetics where Maxwell's equations is the center. It gives a unique approach that hardly see in other books on the subject. This approach has been described by the author in Preface of the book, so if you're not sure, you should read the preface posted above in Editor's review. There's also conceptual development that one can gain profound insight on through the mathematical development. After all, mathematics is the language of physics. Only through its language one can truly understand it. As Einstein once said that "the creative principle resides in mathematics. In a certain sense, therefore, I hold it true that pure thought can grasp reality, as the ancients dreamed." You will come to appreciate this book, as I do.

Electromagnetism is a hard subject for many people, including myself. The best approach is to get a few good books on the subject rather than rely on one book. After doing a survey, I finally bought the following books suitable for my level: (i) Introductory Electromagnetics by Popovic and Popovic; (ii) Field and Wave Electromagnetics by Cheng; (iii) Electromagnetics with Applications by Kraus; (iv) Schaums Outline of Electromagnetics by Edminister. I give five stars to all these books. (There is another book which I will not review or identify, because it turned out to be unsatisfactory.)I am reviewing these four books in one go because they are interrelated. Each of these book is strong in its own unique area.Introductory Electromagnetics by Popovic and Popovic is the best of these book for gaining an intuitive understanding of the difficult subject of electromagnetism. Its clarity and elegance reminds me of Feynman's Lectures in Physics. Every chapter is a work of inspiration. The carefully chosen examples are designed to impart understanding of electromagnetic principles rather than calculation skills. The book is excellent for those who are new to the subject. It is also excellent for those who have already learned some electromagnetics, but who feel that their understanding is still shaky.Field and Wave Electromagnetics by Cheng is the best of these books in terms of the mathematical development of electromagnetics. Although this approach may seem difficult at first glance, ironically the mathematical rigour makes the subject much easier to grasp. That is because mathematical precision goes a long way towards illuminating subtle principles of electromagnetism. As a result, this book, more so than any other book, has given me the confidence to handle the difficult subject of electromagnetism.Electromagnetics With Application by Kraus is the least systematic of these books, with some of the discussions being disjoint and abrupt. It is, however, valuable for its interesting and practical examples. It is a must-have book for anyone who is serious about electromagnetism.Schaums Outline of Electromagnetics, by Edminister, is an outstanding collection of problems and solutions, as well as summaries. It mirrors the excellence of Edminister's other Schaums Outline, namely, Electric Circuits.In summary, these four books have different strengths, respectively the following: (i) intuitive development; (ii) systematic development; (iii) practical application; and (iv) problem solving. These books form an awesome quartet, covering all the bases, and will provide you with a good foundation for advanced studies. A useful supplement for these books is Schaums Mathematical Handbook of Formulas and Tables.

This book is appropirate for engineers rather than physicists. It contains many easy-to-understand examples and exercise problems with solution. Through out reading, you will easily get on what you had been intended to achieve. It will be a sort of corner stone to jump up to deal with more advanced subjects such like photonics or laser engineering. The only disadvantages i picked out is that the author is not so benign enough to explain detail process of what it goes behind, which, in some meaning, is more serious topic than what he had want to point out. Thanx for reading up. Hope god will with you, when you hold this book.

This book takes an axiomatic approach. It states mathematical postulates of EM theory and goes on to develop results. Overall, the presentation is very nice, with plenty of examples to illustrate what's going on. It covers a wealth of material, from basic electro/magneto-statics to waves, antennas, transmission lines, etc.. and can be used as a reference. The only drawback--it lacks those lively, exciting example problems you find in a general physics book. This is not a big deal, but would be nice to have. They sometimes help illustrate concepts more clearly.