Introductory Electromagnetics
by: Zoya Popovic, Branko D. Popovic
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It relates basic physical principles to engineering practice with a number of application examples. It is mathematically simple, but exact.
FEATURES/BENEFITS
Contains application chapters
Includes a "Questions" feature
Derives mathematical tools from physical concepts when needed
Presents transmission lines in the middle of the text once students have understood distributed circuit elements
Offers a "Practice Problems and Labs" supplement
About the Author
Zoya Popovic received her B.Sc. from the University of Belgrade in 1985, and Ph.D. from Caltech in 1990. She has since been at the University of Colorado at Boulder. She is a coauthor of Quasi-optical and Active Arrays for Spatial Power Combining (Wiley, 1997), and holds several patents. She received the Eta Kappa Nu professor of the year award from her students. She won the IEEE MTT Microwave Prize, the NSF Presidential Faculty Fellow Award, the URSI Young Scientist Award, the International URSI Issak Koga Gold Medal, and the University of Colorado Margaret Willard Award. She took her first EM course from her father, Branko D. Popovic, who received his degrees at the University of Belgrade, Serbia, Yugoslavia, where he has been a professor for the past four decades. He was a visiting professor at Virginia Tech (VPI), McGill University, and the University of Colorado, and delivered shortcourses around the world, including Chengdu University in China and the Telebras Institute in Brasil. He is the author of 3 monographs and 6 textbooks in English and Serbian, and was the recipient of the IEE James Clerk Maxwell Award, the IERE Heinrich Hertz Premium, and the Serbian Nikola Tesla Award, as well as numerous teaching excellence awards from his students. He is a Member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts and a Fellow of the IEE. Together, the two authors of Introductory Electromagnetics have had over 50 years experience in teaching electromagnetic fields.
Electromagnetism is a hard subject for many people, including myself. The best approach is to get a few good books on the subject rather than rely on one book. After doing a survey, I finally bought the following books suitable for my level: (i) Introductory Electromagnetics by Popovic and Popovic; (ii) Field and Wave Electromagnetics by Cheng; (iii) Electromagnetics with Applications by Kraus; (iv) Schaums Outline of Electromagnetics by Edminister. I give five stars to all these books. (There is another book which I will not review or identify, because it turned out to be unsatisfactory.)
I am reviewing these four books in one go because they are interrelated. Each of these book is strong in its own unique area.
Introductory Electromagnetics by Popovic and Popovic is the best of these book for gaining an intuitive understanding of the difficult subject of electromagnetism. Its clarity and elegance reminds me of Feynman's Lectures in Physics. Every chapter is a work of inspiration. The carefully chosen examples are designed to impart understanding of electromagnetic principles rather than calculation skills. The book is excellent for those who are new to the subject. It is also excellent for those who have already learned some electromagnetics, but who feel that their understanding is still shaky.
Field and Wave Electromagnetics by Cheng is the best of these books in terms of the mathematical development of electromagnetics. Although this approach may seem difficult at first glance, ironically the mathematical rigour makes the subject much easier to grasp. That is because mathematical precision goes a long way towards illuminating subtle principles of electromagnetism. As a result, this book, more so than any other book, has given me the confidence to handle the difficult subject of electromagnetism.
Electromagnetics With Application by Kraus is the least systematic of these books, with some of the discussions being disjoint and abrupt. It is, however, valuable for its interesting and practical examples. It is a must-have book for anyone who is serious about electromagnetism.
Schaums Outline of Electromagnetics, by Edminister, is an outstanding collection of problems and solutions, as well as summaries. It mirrors the excellence of Edminister's other Schaums Outline, namely, Electric Circuits.
In summary, these four books have different strengths, respectively the following: (i) intuitive development; (ii) systematic development; (iii) practical application; and (iv) problem solving. These books form an awesome quartet, covering all the bases, and will provide you with a good foundation for advanced studies. A useful supplement for these books is Schaums Mathematical Handbook of Formulas and Tables.
Theoretically excelent, but lacks the practical side: Introductory Electromagnetics is a book especially written for engineering students (electrical and electrotechnical) who are taking their first steps in the area. Overall, the book is carefully written, with every chapter featuring very good theoretical introductions that that make the reader feel confortable with the subjects being discussed and know what he's actually studying. The examples given everytime a new concept is introduced are also good and tend to be very down-to-earth and clear for the reader to understand. Nevertheless, this book has a heavy downside, especially to the readers who are using it for, and as the author itself states on the preface, "an intermediate level one-semester textbook in electromagnetic fields": there are very few exercises and the ones that do feature in this book are not supplied with resolutions and not even solutions. In addiction to this, all examples tend to be theoretically good, but the authors try to bypass the mathematical part of the exercises, which don't make things any easy for the readers who are studying for an exam and need to know how a certain problem is solved (since electromagnetism tends to use very particular techniques to solve mathematical issues - especially integral equations - different than those learned in mathematical subjects that the readers probably have had before studying electromagnetism). All in all, the book is theoretically very good and clear, but lacks the practical part of electromagnetism, essencial for problem solving (which is one of the main goals for the college student). Still, it's a good compliment for the students who have solved exercises elsewhere and use this book mainly to understand the theory behind electromagnetism.
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