9In the 1950s, the distinguished theoretical physicist Wolfgang Pauli delivered a landmark series of lectures at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. His comprehensive coverage of the fundamentals of classical and modern physics was painstakingly recorded not only by his students but also by a number of collaborators, whose carefully edited transcriptions resulted in a remarkable six-volume work.
This volume, the first of the series, presents a brief survey of the historical development and then-current problems of electrodynamics, followed by sections on electrostatics and magnetostatics, steady-state currents, quasi-static fields, and rapidly varying fields. As does each book in the series, Volume 1 includes an index and a wealth of helpful figures, and can be read independently of the series by those who wish to focus on a particular topic.
Originally published in 1973, the text remains entirely relevant thanks to Pauli's manner of presentation. As Victor F. Weisskopf notes in the Foreword to the series, Pauli's style is commensurate to the greatness of its subject in its clarity and impact. Pauli's lectures show how physical ideas can be presented clearly and in good mathematical form, without being hidden in formalistic expertise. Alone or as part of the complete set, this volume represents a peerless resource invaluable to individuals, libraries, and other institutions.