Great Reference Guide
Jackson is not a book you just buy for some light reading. It is a very difficult book to understand, unless you already know a lot about E&M. I would not recommend this book unless required for a course or if you are already an expert at E&M then it would be a great reference book.
Don't be too scared...
As an undergraduate and graduate student, I recall whispers of fear always surrounding the mention of the classical electrodynamics course. Most people would say the subject matter itself isn't challenging per se--it's the much-dreaded Jackson book.
It's been said before: this book is best used as a reference, not a textbook. By now nearly all taking the graduate class have already had a course or two in elementary electrodynamics--Jackson takes what you should know and runs with it to a wide-ranging scope. At the graduate level it is the student's job to fill in the annoying "We see by inspection..." blanks, which is the consternation and obsessive joy of many grad students--but Jackson really could've held our hands a little tighter.
Please: use the book as a reference and supplement it with another, MANY others even. Some suggestions are "A Guide to Physics Problems: Part 1" by Sidney Cahn for many worked examples, as well as Fulvio Melia's "Electrodynamics" for a more concise presentation.
Jackson + all these other books is a great resource. But since I am rating the book only by itself, I'd only give it 3 stars; the massive scope is countered by the lack of pedagogy.
It is tough, but you need it!
This book has been used as a graduate level electricity&magnetism textbook for several decades almost all around the World.
It is very comprehensive and well-organized indeed. However, most discussions are based on very few examples. The author deliberately omits many (sometimes very important) steps in the solutions, which makes them harder to follow. The solutions, in general, are very concise. He usully leaves some major parts of the solutions to students, who are just learning it! This does not make your job easier.
Most of the end-of-chapter problems are quite hard. The problems are described somewhat too briefly, more elaboration is needed. There are almost no figures, drawings associated with the problems. Some of the scenarios are really hard to visualize. Most of the problems require long and painful calculations. You usually really need to consult some rigorous mathematical physics books like Arfken.
This book basically brings back all the math you really want to forget. So, you will need to refresh your memory and brush up your math skills. You may use a good math software like Mathematica in order to check your results. You can also avoid lengthy calculations, if your instructor does not mind.
If you have any trouble in understanding the physics, consult a simpler version like Griffths to jog your memory.
Overall, it is a solid, heavy, rigorous physics book! You will need a lot of time to digest its contents and should be armed with necessary weaponry to attack its problems.
Useful Examples
This book is a little hard to follow, but has many good examples. I was able to learn much from this book and would recommend it in conjunction with another E&M book. I chose to buy the second edition because the entire book is in gaussian units.
This is like half a book . . .
So much to say. This book is rough. I find that I follow the text just fine and Jackson does a decent job explaining things. He does do the ever so obnoxious, "I will leave it up to the reader to determine", or "the solution is obvious" when things are not obvious. He even throws in the occasional, "it may bore the reader", but I am already bored at that point, so he might as well just say it. My problems with the book are:
1) very few examples apart from the derivations
2) the homework problems are rough. Our prof assigns 5 problems a week which easily take 20 to 30 hours to complete. It would be nice for Jackson to take pity on those not as smart as himself and throw us some easy transition problems that are similar to those worked in the book. Instead, he throws stuff out of left field. To compound the problem, the questions are very poorly worded.
Why is this like half a book? Expect to spend a lot of time with books that are referenced, such as Arfken and Weber and some others. Arfken and Weber seems to be a pretty essential book, at least for mere mortals such as myself.
I am giving it 3 stars because there are probably better books out there but we are using this book because our professors used the book, and god forbid they would break the cycle. I don't feel that the questions in the book are a good transition from the text. Oh, you will learn the material, but only after a lot of time and energy. If that was his goal, he succeeds.
As to the solutions on the internet, they are more useful for starting points and to check your answer. I find myself being as frequently perplexed by the "solutions" more than anything else.
Advice: Just slam your head against the wall and suffer through it like every other grad student out there. Then, if you become a prof, you can torture your students with this book because it happened to you.
One final note, my background is in Electrical Engineering, so I never dealt with Associated Legendre and Legendre. You might have an easier go of things if you come from a physics background.
(103 reviews)
