Electromagnetic Vibrations, Waves, and Radiation [Paperback]

This is a excellent text for undergraduates in physics or EE to understand the fundamental electromagnetic properties of vibrations, waves and radiation. It supplements Purcell's very well. Having studied it, you are equipped with solid understanding and can go on into Optics.

MITonline offers the course based on this book for free. The course is great! This book is a less engaging, but a more comprehensive version of A.P. French's original text for the course. There are many gems in the book, such as insights into microwave oven fundamentals, that are not present in basic texts. Beware the softcover binding, it needs a gentle hand.

This book is some 40 years old. I, however, found it very instructive and enjoyable. It forms part of the Syllabus of the Lewin MIT 8.03 course. I now understand why. The book is clearly written. The book is filled with worked examples that are interesting and flow from the text. There is consistent explicit use of units and after examples are used they are put in context of the text,

The book covers: oscillations, waves, electromagnetic radiation, transmission of electromagnetic radiation, reflection, refraction, scattering, interaction of electromagnetic fields with matter, diffraction/interference and coherence. This journey is based on classical physics. The authors, however, are quick to point out the limitations of this approach but defend t he practice based on the reasonableness of the approximation for the scale of domain under consideration and the use of expectation values.

The color of the sky, why gold is yellow and silver shiny gray and the frequency dependence of a number of other phenomena as discussed. One example illustrated the tissue penetration of microwave energy into biological tissues. These were all delightful examples.

I am certain that I am completely ignorant of a number of limitations of this book. I also cannot hope to have deep insights into the necessity of quantum mechanics for the nanoscale understanding. However, the clarity and well organized nature of this 40 year old book has certainly diminished my ignorance in a constructive manner.