Introduction to Electrodynamics (4th Edition)

Looks like this edition has been refreshed. So far the price is ~$13 cheaper than the previous edition. Here's a list of changes: [...]
New To This Edition
*Edits to the entire text have clarified arguments and eliminated ambiguities.
*New problems and new worked examples appear throughout, while selected unsuccessful ones have been eliminated.
*All 450 figures have been reviewed for accuracy and updated where necessary.
*A new section on magnetic work helps to eliminate teachers' misconception that magnetic forces do not work. The new section fully explores the actual mechanism in cases where magnetic forces are actually working.
*Erroneous passages have been corrected. In particular, misleading copy (specifically the treatment of "hidden momentum") has been fixed.
*Citations of recent literature appear throughout for those who wish to pursue a particular topic in greater depth. This literature helps reinforce the point that electrodynamics is a vibrant and dynamic field, even after 150 years.

The book is easy to follow, it presents the subject matter in a well formatted fashion.

It speaks volumes when the 4th edition is priced lower at $125.14, and the 3rd edition is priced higher at $133.00, on Amazon.

It's abundantly clear the publisher's (Addison-Wesley's) reputation for complete lack of integrity in failing to correct errors is driving people towards the older edition, and towards avoiding the newest (4th) edition. The author has done a reasonable job of collating errata and posting it on his university website, although he could be more proactive about it. This begs the question: WHY HASN'T THE PUBLISHER SHOWN ANY INTEGRITY BY INCORPORATING THOSE ERRATA INTO EACH SUCCESSIVE PRINTING?

The publisher (University Science Books) of Classical Mechanics by John Taylor exhibted utmost integrity by working "proactively" with the author to ensure virtually 'all' errors were corrected by the 3rd printing.

WHY HASN'T ADDISON-WESLEY DONE THIS WITH GRIFFITHS' TEXT? COMPLETE LACK OF INTEGRITY ON THE PART OF THE PUBLISHER.

TO THE AUTHOR: MANY PEOPLE APPRECIATE YOUR EXCELLENT WRITING. BUT PLEASE SERIOUSLY CONSIDER SWITCHING PUBLISHERS. UNIVERSITY SCIENCE BOOKS IS AN EXCELLENT ALTERNATIVE TO THIS SLOPPY PUBLISHER YOU'RE CURRENTLY USING.

**TO THE STUDENTS AND PROFESSORS: PROFESSOR MUNIR NAYFEH JUST RE-RELEASED HIS TEXTBOOK (ISBN-13: 978-0486789712) THROUGH DOVER IN 2015. "THIS" IS AN EXCELLENT ALTERNATIVE TO GRIFFITHS, WITH MANY WORKED OUT EXAMPLES. NAYFEH TAUGHT UNDERGRAD E&M AT U OF ILLINOIS, AND HAS RECEIVED HIGH PRAISES FROM COUNTLESS STUDENTS.**

Griffiths' examples and writing leave you in need of a solid instructor, and is not very suitable for self-study. The writing and examples are overly simple, and don't get you thinking about the next level. Nayfeh's book is better suited for truly learning. His writing is not overly simplified, and there are many worked examples. Also, Nayfeh has answers to many odd problems in the back of the book, further aiding self-study, and learning.

I have the paperback international edition published by Pearson.
Oh boy what a disappointment ...
Where should I start...
FIRST: Whatever the heck happened to chapter numbers??
I mean why would anyone in their right mind omit chapter numbering???
Hello?
SECOND: The pages are huge in size but the actual printed area on each page
is less than half the physical area. This makes the book floppy and hard to carry around.
THIRD: Asif to add insult to injury, the fonts are less than
10 pts in size. Why would anyone be so stupid, I have no idea.
You have all that blank real estate on the page there, which makes the book
bulky and yet the fonts are so small one needs to continually squint reading the darn thing.
FOURTH: The previous editions used to have a list of formulas on the inside of the front
and back covers, which saved you a lot of time looking up vector identities and so forth.
Where have all the formulas gone? To save ink perhaps? Dumb dumb dumb.
FIFTH: Because there are no chapter numbers, it's impossible to reference
an equation from another chapter, e.g. as Eq. 5.13 for equation 13 in chapter 5.
Consequently there are oddities such as the one on page 255, where it says
"This integral can be written in a more illuminating way, with c=^r"
What c? Which c? How are we to be illuminated now?
It turns out, looking at the 3rd edition that he actually means the c in Equation 108
in Chapter 1. But can't refer to it as Eq 1.108 as before, so he completely omits
the reference altogether, leaving the student scratching his head. Smart, very smart.
Just make the reader feel stupid omitting what would amount to trivial details.

I don't know whose fault this edition was, but it should promptly be "recalled"
and replaced by a sane book, which is/was what we're used to expect from Griffiths.

Excellent book, very well written and clear. The examples are very enlightening and the whole thing is very easy to follow. Would have been 5 stars if it were not for the fact that the first three chapters of the book detached from the spine within the first month. The book seldom left my desk in all that time, and the only stress I put on the binding was opening it to read it. Another textbook I ordered at the same time (different publisher) and which has received the same treatment is still in mint condition.

*UPDATE* I am continuing to use the book in winter term for the second term of E&M. Lots of pages have now fallen out and you can see the notches on each page in most parts of the book. Terrible, terrible, terrible. Awful quality. Buy the paperback version at least--though I have seen pages coming out on that one too. Better yet, buy the e book. unfortunately I like having a physical book...

-original review-

The content is good, and fairly well organized. I didn't ever struggle to learn from the text and use lecture as supplement.

But as others have said, the physicality of the book is terrible. I have the standard hardcover version and have only been using it since late September (it's December now). The spine crackles incessantly and loudly when the book is moved about, and the glue seems to weakly hold the pages--a huge section in chapter 4 of my text is falling out and one page is fully detached already. It wasn't like this at the start of the term, so I think carrying the book in my backpack caused damage.

If you buy the hardcover, don't carry the book around. Just download a copy from the internet and keep that on your phone or tablet or whatever. If you need to buy this book for a class (let's face it, who doesn't?), buy the paperback version if you can.

I am reading this alongside the text by Ohanian and this is a bit lower level. The explanations of how to do problems are much better but Ohanian is far superior at explaining what is going on physically and mathematically. This book is good to have because Ohanian uses CGS units so if I have a need for an equation in MKS I can pull it out of this book already having understood the material I learned in Ohanian. I would say use both in tandem.

The build quality of this edition of the book leaves much to be desired. A majority of the pages are separating from the spine after only a couple of weeks use.

It should also be noted that the differences between this and the third edition of this text are minutely different with entire sections simply being copied and pasted into this new edition from the previous. Problem statements have been shuffled around with few additions to the text. The content within the text itself is quite good. Subject matter is very informative and the method for which the material is presented is intuitive. However, all of this can be found in the cheaper and better-quality third edition.

I would not recommend this product.

This book is an illegal copy. There is no printing information, including citation page, anywhere on the book, including outside on the cover. The book itself is not missing any pages, it simply is not printed with required by law portions. The book is terribly printed on cheap paper, and cheaply bound to a cheap cover. The color of the cover is not quite the right color either. When compared to an authentic book side by side, significant differences were found. This iteration was found to have none of the standard equations, definitions, and constants printed in the inside of both covers. The index in the beginning lists names of chapters only, not sections or their numbers. The problems in the book are not numbered the same way, so when assigned problems for a homework, you have to count from the beginning of the chapter to make sure you work the right one. The first day I got the book, the front cover partially separated. There are frequent misspellings in the book, including on the back cover. Interestingly, one side of a red zipper is glued to the spines at the top and bottom, which at a distance, I assume, were intended to look like stitching on the caps of the spine.

Credentials: Took a 4-credit course in Intermediate Electrodynamics (upper-level college course) during the Spring 2013 semester.

Having no previous experience with the 3rd edition of the textbook by Griffiths, I cannot comment on any improvements in the current edition. However, I can say this much: Griffiths is very fond of his own notation. Some of it makes sense (like the cursive r=r-r' to denote a relative position vector), while some of the overly formal representation with primed coordinates confused me most of the times.

Regarding the organization of material, the author does a good job of explaining physical concepts in words, while also showing clear mathematical derivations and examples with nicely explained solutions. The large amount of practice problems varies from plug-and-chug to incredibly difficult, both conceptually and mathematically. I was indeed challenged while solving problem sets for my course, mostly from a conceptual point of view (Electrodynamics is inherently non-intuitive, in sheer contrast to, say, Classical Mechanics). Overall, I would rate this as a very solid undergraduate text.

PS: I would not recommend this for self-study. This material is pretty heavy and a knowledgeable professor can make things easier! Whenever I skipped class, I found it hard to get back on track. Sadly, that has happened many times...

PPS: I do not like the fact that there is no answer key! If you are like me and enjoy checking your final answers you will understand what I'm talking about. However, I can see why some professors prefer it this way, because it prevents cheating.

I have used the quantum mechanics book from Griffith too. I think his books are in a leisure style that makes the subject accesible. The explanation sometimes helps a lot. A drawback is that he sometimes introduces something he thinks relevant without enough previous explanation or derivation. It's not bad for introduction but for those who seeks for firm basis and for self learners I think it's not so suitable.