electricity

The book by Lines and Glass is the most comprehensive book on the physics of ferroelectrics that I have come across in the pertinent literature. It is by no means for the novice since a solid background in solid state physics is absoluytely needed. The book especially addresses the lattice dynamics picture of ferroelectricity in a concise manner. Also, optical properties of ferroelectrics are given in full depth that is rather difficult to find in many other texts. This book is by no means a textbook. It is very comprehensive reference volume as it contains a lot of critical experimental data and quite a lot of illustrations. Furthermore, the bibliography is vast. All physical models used in the physics of ferroelectricity are derived/summarized from the very first step making the book very "dense" in content. It would characterize the book as somewhat difficult to read, yet I highly recommend it for those who are interested in the physics of ferroelectric phenomena. I do hope that book will be reprinted soon and be available at an affordable price. Addendum: Since the writing of this review, it seems the book has become available again at a much reduced price ;-)

this is by far the most detail book on ferroelectric theory and application

Go for this book when you need a rather complete introduction into the field of solid-state physics NMR and at the same time want to invest into a book that will provide you over the years of your work with more and more detailed information. Slichter gives a thorough mathematical background as well as a discussion of most modern NMR pulse techniques. You may want to accompany this book in the long run with some other that tells you more about designing pulse techniques and/or is more visiual in this aspect. Students will find the book as a whole quite difficult to read, but it is very worthwhile to invest your time into the introductory chapters and then jump into the area of application that you have to become familiar with. Later you will appreciate your investment fully because this is one of the books from which you continue to learn till your retirement.

This is a comprehensive treatment of NMR for both graduate students in physics and researchers by someone who is clearly a master teacher. Attention is given to NMR in liquids (important for biologists) as well as solids. Schlichter is generous with details and is unfailingly aware of the needs of readers desiring more detailed explanations of the physics in difficult situations. He does not shirk the hard points and there is no hand-waving of difficulties. The selection of topics is excellent and the Appendices are detailed and helpful.

It comes therefore as a minor disappointment that the present (3rd) edition is marred by literally hundreds of typos and other small errors (just for perverse kicks, I compiled a partial list that goes on for many pages). I suppose this is ultimately the responsibility of the author, but it seems to me Prof. Schlichter is entitled to more assistance from the copy editor(s) at Springer than apparently was provided.

In a very few places the exposition falters. An example of this occurs in the treatment of the Bloch--Wangsness--Redfield theory. The "trick" referred to after Eq. (5.331) is nonsensical mathematically (try doing it with differential equations in general, you won't get away with it!). In general, the error incurred by using the approximate Eq. (5.110) will be greatly exacerbated after integrating over long times and the answer will be garbage. Fortunately, there is no need for any such "trick", just follow the derivation given in the book but with $\rho^*(0)$ in Eq. (5.110) replaced by $\rho^*(t'')$, so that (5.110) becomes exact. Rather than replacing $\rho^*(t'')$ by $\rho^*(0)$ at the outset as Schlichter does, one needs to defer the approximation as long as possible; then you see that the integration over long times does not give an appreciable error (it is proportional to a convergent infinite-time integral times $\tau_c$). But this is a mathematical, not a physical flaw.

There is a handful of other places where the exposition might conceivably be improved, but this doesn't detract significantly from the great value of this textbook as a detailed guide and reference. Let's hope that more careful copy editing is done for the next edition.

As a graduate student in semiconductor physics, this was one of my favourite texts. A good sophisticated explanation of its subject, that went beyond an introductory text in solid state physics, like Kittel's book or that by Ashcroft and Mermin.

It strikes a nice balance between a purely theoretical book on condensed matter and an empirical-tending experimentalist text. The theoretical explanations presented here will be readily understandable to experimentalists, without having to wade through reams of renormalisation theory.

Perhaps the biggest inadequacy, to some, is the treatment, or lack thereof, of high temperature superconductors. Ah well, that subject is important enough that you probably should get texts devoted exclusively to it.

If you are interested in semi-classical charge and energy transport theory in semiconductors, Seeger is still the best book to learn from. For experimentalists, this book is a boon since many formulaes are given in "reduced" forms - just plug in material constants and get a numerical value.

this book isnt easy to read. the illustration could be better. but on the other hand it is full of very detailed information about control of various electrical maschines (with sensors, sensorless and DTC). it gives a complete introduction to the space vector theory. a short review of different electrical maschines is also present. a basic understand of electrical maschines whould by helpfull reading this book.

En que consisten los controles de par para motores de corriente alterna, especialmente los que se implementan en variadores de frecuencia, que puedan ser acoplados a compresores de aire, amoníaco o bombas de extracción de agua de pozos. son aplicables este tipo de controles?

I pulled this book out when my 5 year old asked me to explain how a light bulb works. The book addresses this subject and also goes on to explain, in simplist form, what electricity is, where it comes from and how we use it in our daily lives. It includes an easy experiement that shows how electricity is created. While my child was able to understand most of what was addressed, the introduction to atoms, electrons... was probably more than he needed right now. But the introduction of generators, wires, circuits and how electricity reaches our home was great. The story format, starting with turning on a light switch, kept him interested.

When I first opened the book, I thought it would be too young for my nine year old. To my surprise, it caught our attention and explained the puzzling mystery of electricity and currents in such a way that we both understood how it works. Reading this turned on the light of comprehension. I highly recommend this book to explain the process.

I believe there are basically two breeds in the world of EM textbooks. One is obviously J.D. Jackson and the other E.M. Purcell. If Griffiths follows Purcell's approach, I'd say Wangsness is in the style of Jackson (of course no direct comparison is possible, Jackson does not really discuss statics anyway).

Wangness is very much _detailed_ and provides ample examples, many of them kindly worked out. I am not sure if this book provides strong background in vector calculus, though. I always had troubles getting some geometrical intuitions. I guess I have learned more from Purcell in this respect.

Of course, there are many other great books such as Lorrain/Corson, Feynman volume 2 and such. Should be nice to look at those as well.

... one might note that this book is developed in such a waythat makes it quite modular. At first Wangsness develops an examplecompletely, often leading to daunting equations. This is wonderful. However if you want to pick and choose a few key assumptions, and developed a more specific case, you can do that with Wagness' help, as well.

Some of the problems are tedious, and void of instruction. Oftentimes, one has to result to digging through the chapter just to find the correct equation, leaving you with no physical intuition of what is really happening. If a professor drew up their own problems to accompany this text, you'd definitely have a winner. END

This book is indeed very modular, if you have any previous EM training and the required mathematical skills you won't have any difficulty using this as a practical, working reference. As a consequence of the modularity, there is some repetition of the information but it's a small price to pay for the completeness of the individual modules.

One of my favorite features of the writing is the clear references to previous results making it easy to review the references (and completely eliminates any need to search the index). I far prefer this to the usual method to make only vague references to previously developed concepts and is one reason why I find this is a good reference work.

Overall, the level is more advanced than Cook though better written. Some of the development of the material is rather novel (e.g., Amperes Law) and considerably more approachable than corresponding works by Smythe (ugh), Peck, or Stratton. I recommend Feynmans lectures in addition to this book. I find the two complement each other quite nicely.

This is a (very heavily mathematical) introduction to the physics of Electricity and Magnetism. Although it has some strong points (It takes the time to explain the math behind div, curl, etc. and some of the problems are rather neat), it also has its weaknesses. First and foremost, the problems are almost universally without solution, except for a select few whose numerical answer are written below the problem. Combine this with the almost total dearth of examples, and you have a pretty serious problem for anyone trying to learn the material on their own. The sections themselves are also sometimes rather poorly explained. Chapters 5(explaining magnetism as the relativistic effect of moving charge) and 10 (dielectrics) are both fairly confusing and hard to understand. At times I found myself begging Purcell to include one, just one little measly example that could possibly make more sense than his pages and pages of writing. Once or twice I found myself not noticing that I had a fundamental misunderstanding of a facet of the material, just because no example or solution in the book provided a counterexample to my way of thinking.

I had the pleasure of using this book for my Honors Electricity and Magnetism class at Cornell. It was my second semester taking physics and I must say I really had a blast with that class, thanks to our professor Richard Galick second semester E&M will be one of my most memorable classes. Do not be misled by my enjoyment of the class, the homework exercises from this book were mostly all VERY CHALLENGING. I really I appreciated that Purcell takes the time in this book to thoroughly explain Physics (not Math which is just a tool used to wok on Physics), and doesn't waste so much time working out through endless formulas that don't get you any where; as our professor used to say "Let the Physics drive the Math, not the other way around".
The only thing I don't like about this book is that it mostly all done in cgs units instead of SI. If you are a Physicist you'll find out how useful (for simplification reasons) this could be but if you are an Electrical Engineer like me it doesn't really help much.

If I were teaching undergrad E&M, I'd assign Purcell for moving charges, and Griffiths for everything else. That one chapter is worth the price of many books (or at least a trip to the library).

I'm a technically-oriented, DIY person and I was looking for a solar electric book to help me with my small-scale, residential installation. I already have most of the background on photovoltaic systems and needed more of a "Here's-how-you-do-it" book. Although amusing and easily read, I found this book useful for someone who is starting to think about solar power and needs a light hand to make them feel more at ease about what a system will and will not do. This is not a book for someone needing a DIY guide or a "How-to" manual. It's not a bad book - just not useful for my needs.

I red this book in Germany where I live, and, even though some aspects of this book are based on conditions in the USA, I highly recommend this book to everybody on this planet. One can tell the author's love of the subject and his skill to write just from the heart on a very technical subject. The stories and jokes in the book helped me to understand the subject and, even if I could not follow some technical detail, the point he tried to make still came across. I now know more about the subject of solar energy and - what is equally important - I look at the world and its resources with a different eye. This is truely and "Easy Guide". Keep cracking Adi,
thanks for this wonderful book.
Sonja Baumann, Berlin Germany

I am not technically inclined and was long waiting to hear about some book that explains solar energy in simple language. I finally found it. And even though it is technically not a How To book it is in a sence that once you understand the concept of solar electric you can use common sense to figure out the practical side of things. Besides this book is more important in a sense that it promotes Solar Energy. With only 50 years of oil reserve left and the rising prices on oil and gas it opens up this alternative energy to many people. The author explains well why it is so important for us and future generations to go solar. I highly recommand this book to everybody. It is an eye opener. Thank you Adi Pieper

This introductory book on Electrodynamics is one of the coolest and informal books I have ever read in my student life. I have used the book as an undergraduate and I still use it even now in my post-graduate study. The physical insights offered by the author in almost all the chapters are invaluable and interesting.Problems in Electrodynamics can be mathematically very demanding, but the book stands on it's own feet and the mathematical background required to use the book is more or less sufficient. The exercises are well thought-out /collected,but a major source of irritation is the lack of solutions or even answers for that matter. Dr Griffiths should understand that an elementary treatise such as this is used by a good proportion of the student community (who do not always have contact with a good teacher) for self-study. Such students need someone to hold his hands and be led into such an interesting area of classical physics. Moreover, when Landau can offer offer solutions to the problems in his Course of Theoretical Physics, Dr Griffiths shouldn't mind giving hints and solutions to the problems. If the author doesn't want to share the solutions in the textbook, a solutions manual should be sold in the market. However, a solution manual is available,from the publishers, but only for teachers who should be able to solve the problems on their own. Even many teachers have privately admitted the problems are beyond their capacity without suitable hints. So, how can the author expect students to solve most of the problems on their own? I have seen many students not following the book, precisely due to lack of solutions , and due to that I can only give four stars out of five. Also, the author needs to dispense with the idea of introducing new concepts in the exercises. But if one forgets that, I would say, the book is surely raccommended to beginners and a good book to start with before graduating to Jackson.

I orignially wrote a review for this book as an undergraduate. In that review, I credited Griffiths with a knack for presenting information in a clever and entertaining way. I still believe this is true. At the time, I also said that Griffiths included precise and complete examples. Looking back, I no longer believe this is true.

When I first started using this book, I was under the impression that Griffiths had discovered a method in the way of writing textbooks that was totally superior to all other authors of similar background. Now, after several years of using Griffiths as a reference, I find that his books serve as a wonderful resource for refreshing one's memory, however they lack a certain comprehensive quality that would make them a solid reference text. I am now a student of John David Jackson, that legendary author with the impossible text (Classical Electrodynamics), and the astounding thoroughness of his book dwarfs the Griffiths E&M text by comparison. Valuable information in the Griffiths text is often left as an exercise. This is very frustrating when one is searching for solutions to much more advanced problems. I contacted Dr. Griffiths and asked him if it would be possible for me to obtain a solutions manual to both his E&M and his Quantum texts, but he informed me that I could not obtain these manuals unless I was an instructor at the insistence of the publisher (Prentice Hall). This is unfortunate.

All in all, the text is a fantastic book for the undergraduate, and a helpful resource for the graduate student. The book is a valuable resource for the intermediate or slightly advanced undergraduate physics student, and I encourage instructors at the undergraduate level to use the Griffiths text.

This book is wonderful. I used it for a 1 year junior-level course at UERJ and I can say it was perfect.

I really don't understand the people that wrote bad reviews about this book. First of all, they seem not to understand that this book is AN INTRODUCTION. There exist excellents books on advanced material (Jackson, Schwinger...), but I doubt anyone has begun with those.

Some of those reviewers say that the math in the book is too elementary. So what? This is a EM course, not a Mathematical Physics one. If you want to struggle with Bessel or others horribles special functions, get Griffiths problems and change them by yourself so that the eigenfunctions are those you want. If you want Green's function, go ahead, you can solve lots of Griffiths' problems with it. But this is not the point. This is a physics book, and the discussion on the fenomena are very good. In my opinion the math used is that you do need to understand the physics.

Other constant complaint is the lack of problem solutions saying that without them you cannot know if you're learning. Well, particularly, it didn't bother me. The problems are very well selected and cover a wide range of difficulty. The easy ones should tell you if you're doing well. And, despite of what others have said, the problems make this a very good book for self-studying.

Finally, I don't understand the complaints about Griffiths' colloquial style. Some other (well celebrated) authors share the same informal writing style and everybody call them genious. Actually, this makes the book very pleasant to read thorough leaving the hard work to the problems.

Just look at Table of Contents. This book offers very little practical input on actual installation of cable. It's better suited for network topology design and review of network equipment,protocols, and theory in general. Almost half of the book is an assortment of RFC's and protocol standarts. Regurgitation of irrelevant information. Get 'The Cabling Handbook' by Vacca or 'The complete guide to network cabling'.

I thought this was an excellent book. We liked it so much we used the book to teach our networking basics class.

I like this book so much at I am going to have my instructors use it in my training classes at the Technology Center.