I need an easy to understand engineering Emag book. Suggestions?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m starting my MSEE this week at AFIT and my track is going to be Radar/Antenna theory etc… and I notice alot of my upcoming classes revolve around Emag. The problem is I think I’m the only EE in America that was NOT required to take an Emag class as part of my undergrad.

As such I need to be able to come up to speed lickity split, on my own. I am thinking about the Schaums guide but in my experience they tend to take for granted that the reader has a knowledge level that I don’t seem to have.

Are there any good, affordable (under $100) books that I can self teach engineering-caliber Emag theory? Is Schaum’s the best option?

2

Nothing? No idears?

3

Are you looking for an introduction to Maxwell’s equations, electrostatics, etc? There are lots of them out there; I like David Griffiths as an introductory EM text. Jackson is the standard reference, but it’s probably a little dense to start with. These are both oriented toward physics, though for a first EM course that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

It would probably be worth your while to take, or at least audit, an undergrad course on this material (in which case you might want to use the course textbook, at least as one source). IMO, introductions to subjects go more smoothly when there’s someone around who understands the material well.

4

I never had to take the course (MechE - I don’t engineer anything I can’t grab onto with both hands) but the EEs during my undergrad years used Ulaby’s text. I used it to look up some equations to help me with 300-level Circuits, because my circuits text was worse than useless. I liked the very careful steps of reasoning and its utility as a reference. If you’ve got some EE smarts you’ll probably eat this stuff right up.

Omphaloskeptic, AFIT is at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base – it’s an engineering master’s for junior officers that you complete in 1.5 years, and they work you hard. He’s not going to have time to enroll in undergrad courses!

Stinkpalm, best of luck at AFIT! If you get some time off from your studies, grab some dinner out at the Gypsy Café in Yellow Springs. Oh, and while it’s still hot, head a little farther up US 35 to Young’s Jersey Dairy for some ice cream – great stuff, made from cows on the premises. My e-mail is in my profile if you’ve got any questions about Dayton or Wright-Patt.

5

I’ll second Omphaloskeptic’s recommendation - I really liked the David Griffiths book in my undergrad years. And if you can get the solutions manual, that’s great too.

6

What school can you get an BSEE without Emag? I’d love to finish mine, but couldn’t pass Emag.

7

Yeah. AFIT is a really tough school. Due to the time constraints, and the fact that I am required to take 12hrs every semester, whether I need the class as a degree requirement or not, makes it impossible for me to audit an Emag course at a local university.

I was rather suprised at the background of the faculty at this school. This is a no shit, kick your ass MSEE. All 133 of the faculty are PhDs with 3 exceptions and this school (typically) doesn’t homebrew their own professors (ie they didn’t get their PhD at AFIT).

I went to Colorado Tech for my undergrad. It’s a pretty good school but it’s small so you have easy access to all the professors. It’s way overpriced and probably falls in the middle of the pack as far as prestige goes but it was a good school. I had a choice of taking EMag, S&D, Thermo or CMOS. Any 2 of those. Apparently ABET is okay with that as they are still accredited. Looking back I wish I would have taken Emag instead of CMOS but CMOS was much easier.

8

I didn’t make that recommendation lightly; I know that really learning this stuff takes a lot of time (this is true whether you audit a course or “just” work through the book on your own until you honestly understand it). But he wants to do radar/antenna work! He’s got to understand Maxwell’s equations. Trying to take an antenna course without this foundation is, as far as I can imagine, simply not going to work.

9

Jackson is a fine text, but don’t get it. You probably don’t want Griffith’s book either, if it’s “Physics oriented.” Physics and EE use different systems of units, and even different time conventions, and you want the EE conventions and units. In EE, we use SI units, also called rationalized MKSA. (Maybe they’re not strictly the same thing, but whatever units it is we EEs use, we all use the same ones).

You need to look through the Table of Contents of the book you’re considering, and find the section where they first give Maxwell’s equations. This is usually after a few chapters on electrostatics, magnetostatics, and basic intro stuff. In Jackson, for example, it’s Chapter 6, section 3.

If the Maxwell’s equations look like

Div D = 4 pi rho
Curl E = -dB/dT * 1/c
Curl H = 4 * pi * J / c + dD/dt * 1 / c

you’ve got a physics text. It may be a great book, but it’s not for you.

If instead they look like

Div D = rho
Curl E = -dB/dt
Curl H = J + dD/dt

you’ve got the EE equations. These are what you want.

You should also check the phasor time convention. Look up “phasor” or “time convention” in the index. It should use e[sup]+jwt[/sup] convention. I think EE always uses e[sup]+jwt[/sup], and physics always uses e[sup]-jwt[/sup] convention, but there’s probably at least one exception out there to confuse everyone.

I used Cheng’s “Field and Wave Electromagnetics” in my first course, but that was over 20 years ago, so I don’t really have a recommendation to give you.

10

The trend is toward SI, even for physics textbooks. Griffiths uses SI in his book, and even Jackson has switched to SI for the third edition (personally I never thought I’d see that). I don’t recall the sign convention for either of them.

Stinkpalm: What classes are you taking that involve E&M? (I’m just trying to get a feel for how much you’re expected to know right off the bat.)

11

I had no idea. Next you’ll be telling me the Sun is rising in the West now.

12

It won’t work as a stand -alone text but the Schaum’s Outline of Electromagnetics by Edminster got me through the tough parts of the class. It’s always nice to have an alternate souce to refer to, esp with examples, diagrams and when it doens’t weigh 12lbs. The price is right, too.

13

When you’re lookin’ for informed opinions, it’s always best to start your thread in IMHO. General Questions is for something else.

Moved. samclem GQ moderator