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From the first preface (1962) of Jackson > Typically, the undergrad program in electricity and magnetism involves two or perhaps three semesters beyond element

From the first preface (1962) of Jackson > Typically, the undergrad program in electricity and magnetism involves two or perhaps three semesters beyond elementary physics.... As a general rule, a two-semester course in electromagnetic theory is given to beginning graduate students. It is for such a course that my book is designed. So, your professors did you injustice by using an inappropriate book. Spivak, Goldstein and MWT are undergraduate books and appropriate. Landau and Lifschitz is great and accessible to smart undergraduates, but I don't see why you would use it for mathematical physics. Sure, Landau emphasized methods a lot, but there are better books for it.

macbr 2y ago
As someone studying Physics (Bachelor) in Germany Jackson is what my electrodynamics professor recommended. My professor greatly shortened the chapter maxwell in matter and opted to give an intro into quantum electrodynamics instead. At my uni it's a fourth semester course with theoretical mechanics (second semester) and quantum mechanics (third semester) preceeding it.
denotational 2y ago
> So, your professors did you injustice by using an inappropriate book. Not necessarily: undergraduate and pre-undergraduate education differs a lot between the UK and the US.
senderista 2y ago
MTW ("the telephone book") is definitely not an undergrad textbook (although you might be able to cobble together an undergrad course out of bits and pieces of it). It is very heavy on intuition and visualization, though, which is why I like it (e.g. the "egg carton" visualization of differential forms).
- abdullahkhalids 2y ago
  From the preface of MTW: > It supplies two tracks through the subject. The first track ... is suitable for a one-semester course at the junior or senior level or in graduate school. As you say, it picks out bits and pieces that an undergrad can understand. Today, there are better GR books, so use those.
  - senderista 2y ago
    There are certainly many better GR books (going back at least as far as Wald), but there's still nothing quite like the whimsy of MTW.

macbr 2y ago

As someone studying Physics (Bachelor) in Germany Jackson is what my electrodynamics professor recommended. My professor greatly shortened the chapter maxwell in matter and opted to give an intro into quantum electrodynamics instead. At my uni it's a fourth semester course with theoretical mechanics (second semester) and quantum mechanics (third semester) preceeding it.

denotational 2y ago

> So, your professors did you injustice by using an inappropriate book. Not necessarily: undergraduate and pre-undergraduate education differs a lot between the UK and the US.

senderista 2y ago

MTW ("the telephone book") is definitely not an undergrad textbook (although you might be able to cobble together an undergrad course out of bits and pieces of it). It is very heavy on intuition and visualization, though, which is why I like it (e.g. the "egg carton" visualization of differential forms).

abdullahkhalids 2y ago
From the preface of MTW: > It supplies two tracks through the subject. The first track ... is suitable for a one-semester course at the junior or senior level or in graduate school. As you say, it picks out bits and pieces that an undergrad can understand. Today, there are better GR books, so use those.
- senderista 2y ago
  There are certainly many better GR books (going back at least as far as Wald), but there's still nothing quite like the whimsy of MTW.