<p>Lol @ PurdueEE</p>
<p>You know, there are multiple levels of sophistication at which you can teach E & M. Better tell all the physicists that they are wasting their time with such a noob subject while you’re at it . . .</p>
<p>Math helps. If you have Calc I-III, Differential Equations and Linear Algebra down, then things are easier. My son prepared using Edward Purcell’s book which is an oldie. He also watched the Walter Lewin videos which he said were a lot of fun.</p>
<p>Hopefully the math courses include physical applications. For example, my students initially had difficulty understanding what a gradient really is, which made it more difficult for them to understand the connection between the potential and electric field.</p>
<p>^^
At that, I feel that engineering students in general are more interested in passing the classes than actually understanding anything. EM is a quite easy class if you understand all the prerequisites at A levels, but then so are all other classes unless you got insane teachers.</p>
<p>But I think the reason EM gets singled out is because it is one of the few engineering courses were they assume that you have learned anything before you take it.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses. I kind of wish I was an EE major now since I love physics XD </p>
<p>Is the E&M book by Griffiths any good for the freshman college physics II course with E&M? Will it help me understand the material better or is it just too advanced for it?</p>
<p>“But I think the reason EM gets singled out is because it is one of the few engineering courses were they assume that you have learned anything before you take it.”</p>
<p>I don’t agree. The concepts in EM are more difficult to understand than mechanics for example. Also unlike something like mechanics, the problems typically cannot be done “cookbook fashion”.</p>
<p>Hmm, I never did anything “cookbook fashion” so maybe that’s why. Usually you are just expected to watch for symmetries, put up plus solve some multiple integral and know how the equations fit together. People say that it is one of the hardest courses but I never really saw why.</p>
<p>“Usually you are just expected to watch for symmetries, put up plus solve some multiple integral and know how the equations fit together.” - maybe for using Gauss’s and Ampere’s laws but frequently such symmetries don’t exist except in trivial problems.</p>
<p>All solvable problems relies on symmetry…</p>
<p>Edit: Also can you put
[Quote]
<a href=“Without%20the%20extra%20space”>/Q uote</a> around the things you quote instead? Then it looks like this:
</p>
<p>I have a question regarding Physics E and M. </p>
<p>I just finished my first year at college and I declared myself as an electrical engineering major. To occupy myself this summer, I decided to take Physics E and M and a local community college (from which the credits will transfer to my main college). Without sparing words, the class is horrible. I am basically self teaching everything and the professor literally knows nothing (at least doesnt know to explain what he knows because he has not once explained a problem fully on the board). He diverts the questions from students back to students in a pseudo-intellectual way (think about this, guys , what do YOU think?, You can follow it etc.), and then someone says something and he agrees and he simply goes on. I have so many doubts and queries even though I am trying my best to learn the subject on my own. My main question is: Knowing that Physics E and M is a crucial foundation part for EE, will I be fine if I have a basic understanding of concepts? Will EE courses I take later then emphasize the E and M topics as needed? My first EE class is intro to circuits, which I am taking next semester. Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>Circuits have nothing to do with the theoretical EM courses except the notion that if you made a ton of simplifications you would get the formulas you use in circuits.</p>
<p>But I am not an EE I do not really know how important it is for your other courses, and I do not even know how deep your EM course goes. Like, do you use greens functions to treat the fields and do you use objects such as Maxwell’s stress tensor? Or is it just the basic simplifications for EM, where you barely even use multi integrals?</p>
<p>This is just basic EM community college level. Not even triple integrals yet.</p>
<p>Ah, but then it is probably really important that you understand it since I believe that you will need to take a more advanced course in EM later. It is always really important to learn the prerequisites really well, do not just study to take the test but study to try to understand it well. Even if it takes some more hours it will be worth it when you get to the later courses.</p>
<p>Believe it or not, but I got an A in E&M second semester and a C+ in mechanics first semester. I’m just not good at mechanics and don’t like it. But E&M is very interesting, so interesting I am considering majoring in physics.</p>
<p>“Knowing that Physics E and M is a crucial foundation part for EE, will I be fine if I have a basic understanding of concepts?”</p>
<p>EE E&M is part of EE. The emphasis is very different in physics. EE undergraduate E&M does not use Green’s functions or spherical harmonics or any of the stuff that’s in Jackson. That’s graduate level E&M.</p>