Thanks! My first reaction to your suggestion was: 'he must be joking! But then I thought about it a bit.
"Begin with the end in mind" is an aphorism I like. I have actually been targeting Einstein's General Relativity for a few years to get myself motivated. But I understand Einstein's work was substantially posited on Maxwell's. And I've never attempted to study Maxwell's equations. So, at least getting the gist of Maxwell's equations ought to help! And, you are right: one certainly can't be much of an electrical engineer, much less a GR physicist, without having a good feel for them!
Do you possibly have an introductory book or course to recommend? This is an "aim for the stars and you might just hit the moon" type project, for me. I don't pretend to have a genius for mathematics, but I am drawn to sharpen myself on that lathe for some perverse reason I don't really understand.
Do I need vector calculus before Maxwell's Equations? I took a crack at that last year (http://www.coursera.org/learn/vector-calculus-engineers) and concluded the course was just too far outside of my direct reach. So now I am trying to strengthen my linear algebra so I can better comprehend tensors and fields, before going back for another pass.
P.S> Oh, jeez. You weren't joking at all! I do a search for Maxwell's Equations and I am recommended back to lecture 53 of the vector calculus course I found a little too opaque the first time through: http://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=coursera+maxwells+equations&iax=videos&ia=videos&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dl5YF42lmdBI
I really need a more gentle orientation before I take another crack at that course!
P.P.S. Maybe http://www.coursera.org/learn/physics-102-ac-circuits-maxwell-equations ? Sometimes the whole enterprise of uplift seems like forever.
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http://www.powerelectronictips.com/intuitive-view-of-maxwells-equations-faq/
Maxwell’s equations: An intuitive view for engineers
January 17, 2019 By Aimee Kalnoskas
by Asem Elshimi, Design Engineer, Silicon Labs
“From a long view of the history of mankind, seen from, say, ten thousand years from now, there can be little doubt that the most significant event of the 19th century will be judged as Maxwell’s discovery of the laws of electrodynamics. The American Civil War will pale into provincial insignificance in comparison with this important scientific event of the same decade.”
― Richard P. Feynman, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965
"Electrical engineers tend to dislike hearing about Maxwell’s equations. The equations seem to bring up some frustrating memories to everyone. The conflict starts simply with the way electromagnetism is taught in engineering schools. Lecturers are more often than not flooding the minds of students with a tremendous number of equations and mathematical problems. They keep the students too busy memorizing formulas and solving hypothetical charge problems. Very few engineering lecturers, on the other hand, focus on the underlying physics of such equations or the relevance of such hypothetical problems or developing intuition.
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