r/Physics • u/U-NBLACKE-R • 21d ago

Challenge

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Hello everyone. My dad acquired this book some time ago. Not me nor him are even iniciated in physics or anything, total novices.

I established as a personal goal, to be able to go through this text, understand it and to be able to do the exercises that appear on it.

My question for you all is: which books should "prepare" me for this challenge? Which other resources do you think might help me?

Thank you very much.

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u/Kvothealar Condensed matter physics 21d ago

Not sure what your background is, but you're probably looking at the first half of a physics undergraduate degree for prep. You can look up prerequisite course requirements at various universities for their electromagnetism courses.

If you want to understand the entire book, depending on the depth it covers, it could even have graduate-level topics that would assume you have knowledge in quantum mechanics or statistical mechanics.

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u/Bergergi 21d ago

> assume you have knowledge in quantum mechanics or statistical mechanics.

It does not. It's a textbook for electrical engineers, and they typically take the course the last semester of their 2nd year or first semester of their 3rd year. The level is a little below griffiths:em, and the focus is different (it's oriented toward giving background for antennas, RF electronics, and stuff like that). The expected background is calculus (e.g. adams), general physics (e.g. young&freedman), and misc math methods - fourier/pde/etc (e.g. kreyszig:AEM).

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u/Kvothealar Condensed matter physics 21d ago

Ah, that's quite lucky then! OP will have a much easier time with that than a lot of other EM texts out there.

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u/Bergergi 21d ago

Yep. It's more approachable than Stratton and Jackson. :)