Electrodynamics/Introduction
Welcome
[edit | edit source]Welcome to the Electrodynamics wikibook. This book is a wiki, so all readers are welcome to contribute to the book to help make it better.
Who is this book for?
[edit | edit source]This book is part of a series of books on Modern Physics, and is intended to be read by advanced undergraduate students in the fields of physics or engineering.
What will this book cover?
[edit | edit source]This book is going to introduce and discuss the topics of the electric field and the magnetic field. We are going to discuss the effects of relativity on these fields. We are also going to introduce tensors as a method to describe these fields under transformation.
What are the prerequisites?
[edit | edit source]Before reading this book, the reader should have a solid background in calculus (especially multivariable or "vector" calculus), differential equations, and elementary physics. Some books that will be useful are:
Notations
[edit | edit source]This book will rely on a variety of mathematical notations. We will follow this convention, where possible:
- Scalars will be italic. Scalars will be denoted with a lower-case letter, or a Greek letter.
- Vectors will be bold and lower-case.
- Vector fields, tensors, and matrices will be bold and upper-case.
- A cross (×) will denote the vector cross-product, not scalar multiplication.
- Where possible, when an equation or mathematical term needs to be embedded in the text of a page, it will be rendered as HTML, not in TeX.
- Parenthesis will be used to denote the arguments to a function, such as σ(r). Subscripts will be used to denote elements from inside a vector, such as p1 for numbered elements, and Bx for elements that correspond to a particular coordinate.