From the Book Shelf . . . | Volume 2 No.2 | March 1999 |
From the Book Shelf . . .
The fourth review of the UG curriculum is already underway. In the same stride, DIRECTIONS brings to you a review of the text books prescribed for some of the undergraduate courses. These texts are now placed under the magnifying lens, to assess their relevance in current times. Two Physics texts have been picked for this issue of DIRECTIONS. The reviewers give their assessment of whether the books continue to be the best choice of today's teachers.
by Daniel Kleppner and Robert J. Kolenkow
1978, McGraw-Hill International Edition,
Singapore
ISBN 0-07-085423-8
Price: Rs. 500
Kleppner and Kolenkow is a reasonably good textbook for a course in Mechanics for students who have already learned the techniques of differentiation and integration and have been introduced to differential equations. We have been using it as a textbook for our introductory mechanics course for first-year students since 1995. The book has a very clear exposition of most topics, with an emphasis on fundamental physics. Most of the derivations in the book are very clear. Both geometric and algebraic methods are illustrated. The book also discusses a wide range of physical phenomena, although here it would have been better if more examples from engineering had been included. An excellent source of such examples is Dynamics by Meriam. The choice of worked examples is excellent and most of them illustrate important concepts.
The book is limited in the range of exercises provided at the end of most chapters and should have included many more challenging problems. Here again an excellent range of exercises is provided by Meriam. One topic that does not receive much attention in this book, and in fact, in most books at this level, is Dimensional Analysis. Any Physics or Engineering student at this level should have a more thorough training in this topic than is usually taught at the high school level.
Apart from this, the choice of topics and their level of discussion is excellent. I would, therefore, recommend this book as a text in Mechanics for first year students at IIT Kanpur.
Pankaj Jain
Introduction
to Electrodynamics, 2nd Edition
by David J. Griffiths
1989, Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, N.J., U.S.A.
ISBN-0-87692-602-2
Price: Rs. 150
Phenomena of electricity and magnetism, along with classical mechanics, form the core of any science and engineering education. This choice is not only because of their applications to everyday life, but also due to the inherent logic and analyses which is provided by the study of these topics. There are a large number of books on the subject. Physics by Halliday and Resnick has been a popular book for a long time.
Electricity and magnetism can be taught at various levels from undergraduate to postgraduate courses. Introduction to Electrodynamics by Griffiths is a calculus-based book that covers electrostatics, magnetostatics, electrodynamics, electromagnetic waves, as well as electromagnetic radiation and relativity.
This book uses vector calculus, curvilinear coordinates and analytical geometry. The necessary background is developed in the first chapter, which gives the concepts of vectors, differential and integral calculus. Dirac delta function is also introduced in this chapter. This is supplemented by an appendix on vector calculus in curvilinear coordinates.
The subject matter on electrostatics is built up in the next three chapters, followed by two chapters on magnetostatics. Further, a chapter on electrodynamics and Maxwell's equations (Chapter 7) provides a link to electromagnetic waves (Chapter 8). Electromagnetic radiation is discussed in Chapter 9. The last chapter on electrodynamics and relativity gives a beautiful connection between the special theory of relativity and electromagnetism. Relativistic electrodynamics is treated in this chapter in brief by essentially providing the field transformations and showing magnetism as a relativistic phenomenon.
The writing style of the book is a refreshing change from a large number of books on the subject, which are either drily mathematical or verbose. It is written by the author in the first person. He has realized the problems encountered by his readers and has often warned about the conceptual traps one may encounter. SI units (rationalized mks units) are used throughout the book. An appendix provides the link with the traditional cgs units.
The book has a large number of solved examples and problems interspersed between the text. The choice of examples and problems is excellent and their placement after the text reinforces the theory developed so far. Many of them have a specific purpose, and the author desires that they should be worked out immediately after reading the section to which they pertain. Often solutions of problems are used later in the text to build up further ideas. Additional problems are also present at the end of the chapters. Difficult problems are marked and may be tried by the advanced level reader.
A large number of footnotes provide clarifications, anecdotes or references for further reading. There are updated references to popular magazines such as Scientific American and articles in Journals such as American Journal of Physics. An enthusiastic reader would be able to appreciate the pedagogic importance of such references. Several problems are also based on journal articles.
This is now a recommended textbook in the first year undergraduate physics course at our Institute. It is neither possible nor necessary to cover the full text in this one-semester course. However, electrostatics and magnetostatics are covered in considerable details followed by Faraday's Laws, Maxwell's equations and electromagnetic waves. Instructors can choose to cover the other topics such as waves in matter, dispersion, dipole radiation, and relativistic electrodynamics, in varying degrees of details.
Satyendra Kumar
