[.ca] Electricity and Magnetism, Vol. II (ISBN 0070049084)

Highs and Lows:
Having used this book for my indroduction to E & M as a physics major, I have some mixed sentiments. I found the majority of the chapters to be fairly readible, but there is a great lack of examples. I at times found it difficult to bring the depth of theory explained in the main text to the more applicable review problems. I would not recommend this book if you intend it as a supliment for engineering. The depth of this book is focused on theory, and contrasts to the practicality of engineering. I would also recommend that if you intend to use this book, that you get supliment texts with examples. The chapter on capacitance is especially fast and ill explained. I do not believe anyone in my class fully grasped the concluding pages of this chapter. So in all, the book is good in depth of theory, bad in examples and at times in explanation, and is not only suitable but often required for those aspiring to have a deep understanding of the physics of electricity and magnetism.

Great with a class, not-so-great when self-taught:
Purcell gives an excellent treatise on electricity in magnetism in this text, and in an unusual way. Often in a freshman or junior undergrad level course the students are taught about electrostatics first, then magnetism as a separate entity, and only later in some chapter near the end of the book (if it indeed is included at all) does the author show how magnetism arises simply via a relativistic transformation of moving charges. However, Purcell introduces this concept shortly after he discusses electrostatics and BEFORE he introduces magnetism, which is very important. He then continues on in the book without throwing aside relativity as a special topic, introducing the force tensor for an electromagnetic field in chapter 9 when he discusses Maxwell's equations. However, I wasn't very pleased with the amount of problems that were offered at the end of each chapter (15-30) and the fact that only very few have answers, making it very hard for the student trying to teach themselves the physics to test whether or not he's doing the problem correctly. But it takes little away from the text in a classroom setting, and I recommend it for advanced freshman or for a regular junior-level one semester course.

Great text!:
I used this text in an 'advanced' introductory physics course and loved it. Explanations are clear and concise, examples and homework problems are of sufficient sophistication to prepare one for challanging exams, and the text limits itself to a thorough study of the more basic concepts of electricity and magnetism. The text is excellent preparation for more advanced study, and probably a good reference for students who need help while pursuing more advanced study.

Electricity AND Magnetism:
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).

A Must Have Introductory Text:
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.