--- product_id: 2766775 title: "Electricity and Magnetism" price: "€ 102.41" currency: EUR in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.pt/products/2766775-electricity-and-magnetism store_origin: PT region: Portugal --- # Electricity and Magnetism **Price:** € 102.41 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Electricity and Magnetism - **How much does it cost?** € 102.41 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.pt](https://www.desertcart.pt/products/2766775-electricity-and-magnetism) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description For 50 years, Edward M. Purcell's classic textbook has introduced students to the world of electricity and magnetism. The third edition has been brought up to date and is now in SI units. It features hundreds of new examples, problems. figures. contains discussions of real life applications. The textbook covers all the standard introductory topics, such as electrostatics, magnetism, circuits, electromagnetic waves. electric and magnetic fields in matter. Taking a nontraditional approach, magnetism is derived as a relativistic effect. Mathematical concepts are introduced in parallel with the physics topics at hand, making the motivations clear. Macroscopic phenomena are derived rigorously from the underlying microscopic physics. With worked examples, hundreds of illustrations. nearly 600 end of chapter problems and exercises, this textbook is ideal for electricity and magnetism courses. Solutions to the exercises are available for instructors at www.cambridge.org/Purcell Morin. Review: this is the best first textbook on Electricity and Magnetism - I would say only this: Provided you have some basis on Special Relativity, this is the best first textbook on Electricity and Magnetism. Surely, after it you will need some other text with a stronger emphasis on mathematics. But the physical knowledge/intuition is build here better than in any other book, thanks to the wonderful/delightful explanations of Edward Purcell. At the undergraduate level is possibly one of the best written books in physics. Review: a classic, improved and updated - This is the best freshman E&M text of all time -- provided that the class consists of students ready to handle the material at this level. Although the necessary tools of vector calculus are introduced from scratch, I doubt that most students would be able to get up to speed unless they had already had vector calculus or were at least taking it concurrently. The best known innovation of this book was the presentation of magnetism as a consequence of relativity. The book assumes you've already learned special relativity. (There is an appendix on SR in the 3rd edition, but realistically that wouldn't be sufficient.) I ordered a copy of the 3rd edition ($76), and compared it side by side with my disintegrating but much-loved copy of the 1965 1st edition. The price is amazingly reasonable compared to the kind of exploitative prices you see these days for textbooks. One thing I'd never noticed before is that the 1st edition has a notice on its copyright page saying that it's available for royalty-free use after 1970. (It was an NSF-sponsored project.) So theoretically it's legal to scan it and put it on the web for free. However, what I find when I look around on the web is people illegally making the 2nd edition available through sleazy file-sharing sites. The most important change is the switch from cgs to SI units. Three cheers. Without this change the book would have stayed in the ghetto forever. The 3rd edition is almost twice the bulk of the 1st. This is mostly because there are far more problems, and many of them have complete solutions in the back of the book. This is a great new feature. There is also an applications section at the end of every chapter. For the most part, though, it's exactly the same text with only a very few minor changes here and there. The line art is mostly the same. The graphic design isn't as nice as in the 1st edition, which often used gray backgrounds on the figures, with a full bleed. In the 3rd edition, the figures often aren't sufficiently clearly divided from the text, and the effect is extremely ugly. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #96,130 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #9 in Magnetism in Physics #62 in Physics (Books) | | Customer Reviews | 4.7 out of 5 stars 266 Reviews | ## Images ![Electricity and Magnetism - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61hP7NA6TaL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ this is the best first textbook on Electricity and Magnetism *by C***V on June 20, 2016* I would say only this: Provided you have some basis on Special Relativity, this is the best first textbook on Electricity and Magnetism. Surely, after it you will need some other text with a stronger emphasis on mathematics. But the physical knowledge/intuition is build here better than in any other book, thanks to the wonderful/delightful explanations of Edward Purcell. At the undergraduate level is possibly one of the best written books in physics. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ a classic, improved and updated *by B***L on March 5, 2013* This is the best freshman E&M text of all time -- provided that the class consists of students ready to handle the material at this level. Although the necessary tools of vector calculus are introduced from scratch, I doubt that most students would be able to get up to speed unless they had already had vector calculus or were at least taking it concurrently. The best known innovation of this book was the presentation of magnetism as a consequence of relativity. The book assumes you've already learned special relativity. (There is an appendix on SR in the 3rd edition, but realistically that wouldn't be sufficient.) I ordered a copy of the 3rd edition ($76), and compared it side by side with my disintegrating but much-loved copy of the 1965 1st edition. The price is amazingly reasonable compared to the kind of exploitative prices you see these days for textbooks. One thing I'd never noticed before is that the 1st edition has a notice on its copyright page saying that it's available for royalty-free use after 1970. (It was an NSF-sponsored project.) So theoretically it's legal to scan it and put it on the web for free. However, what I find when I look around on the web is people illegally making the 2nd edition available through sleazy file-sharing sites. The most important change is the switch from cgs to SI units. Three cheers. Without this change the book would have stayed in the ghetto forever. The 3rd edition is almost twice the bulk of the 1st. This is mostly because there are far more problems, and many of them have complete solutions in the back of the book. This is a great new feature. There is also an applications section at the end of every chapter. For the most part, though, it's exactly the same text with only a very few minor changes here and there. The line art is mostly the same. The graphic design isn't as nice as in the 1st edition, which often used gray backgrounds on the figures, with a full bleed. In the 3rd edition, the figures often aren't sufficiently clearly divided from the text, and the effect is extremely ugly. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reencounter *by F***E on August 30, 2017* I studyed it in my years of university, subsidiarly to Halliday (the main text) and liked very much of Purcell's book. It's more hard that Halliday's and i don't liked of CGS system. But the explanations are good and the problems were interestings, and many times challenging. Now appear a new version, aperfectaly, corrected, MKS system, and with many problens solved and others proposed. The level is from intermedieted to advanced, in betwin Halliday and Reitz (or Griffts), more near Reitz. It is time of review my forty years old knwoledge of eletromagnetism and it will be with Purcell's. ## Frequently Bought Together - Electricity and Magnetism - Introduction to Classical Mechanics: With Problems and Solutions - An Introduction to Mechanics --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.pt/products/2766775-electricity-and-magnetism](https://www.desertcart.pt/products/2766775-electricity-and-magnetism) --- *Product available on Desertcart Portugal* *Store origin: PT* *Last updated: 2026-09-12*