Book description

For 40 years Edward M. Purcell's classic textbook has introduced students to the wonders of electricity and magnetism. With profound physical insight, Purcell covers all the standard introductory topics, such as electrostatics, magnetism, circuits, electromagnetic waves, and electric and magnetic fields in matter. Taking a non-traditional approach, the textbook focuses on fundamental questions from different frames of reference. Mathematical concepts are introduced in parallel with the physics topics at hand, making the motivations clear. Macroscopic phenomena are derived rigorously from microscopic phenomena. With hundreds of illustrations and over 300 end-of-chapter problems, this textbook is widely considered the best undergraduate textbook on electricity and magnetism ever written. An accompanying solutions manual for instructors can be found at www.cambridge.org/9781107013605.

Reviews

‘Purcell's text is an introduction to the beauty and power of theoretical physics. Here, Einstein's relativity is not merely a mathematical curiosity banished to the sidelines, but an active participant in revealing Maxwell's equations in the clearest and simplest way possible. For many of the past two generations of physicists, a first encounter with Purcell's electromagnetism lingers in the memory as something like first love.’

David Derbes - University of Chicago Laboratory Schools

‘This book is a classic - in my opinion the greatest physics text ever written … the serious student will absorb Purcell’s profound understanding of electrodynamics, and appreciate the extraordinary beauty of the theory.’

David Griffiths - Reed College

‘Purcell's book is one of the few really excellent texts on introductory electricity and magnetism, which is fundamental to the education of every physicist. It's the only text I'm aware of that so seamlessly incorporates the development of the required vector calculus into the discussion of the physics that it is needed to describe. For the serious physics student, I know of no better book at this level.’

Peter Krieger - University of Toronto

‘Purcell's book taught a whole generation of physicists that you needn't travel at half the speed of light to see relativity in action. Magnetism is caused by length contraction! Radiation is a consequence of the cosmic speed limit! This welcome reprint will bring these insights, and many others, to a new generation.’

Daniel V. Schroeder - Weber State University

'… very beautifully written and gives a well-structured and clear insight into the topic. It is much-appraised and has become some sort of standard not without good reason. As such, it can be recommended to any student as a textbook accompanying a course in electricity and magnetism.'

Source: Contemporary Physics

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