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The Art of Electronics

jw0752

Several months ago recommended a book to me called "The Art of Electronics" by Paul Horowitz and Winfield Hill. Since Don's advise has proven accurate and valuable to me in the past I went and looked up the book. I learned that the Third Edition of the book was due for release in the Spring so I placed a preorder and put further thought about it in the back of my mind.

 

 

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Today, when I got home, I found it delivered to my front door. I was very eager to check it out. I must confess that my expectations were high enough that there was a real chance that it would be a disappointment.

 

I began, as I usually do with a book like this, by reading the Prefaces and exploring the Table of Contents, Appendices, and Index. One of the first things that made me smile was Appendix P Acronyms and Abbreviations.  Since I first joined the E-14 Forum I have been plagued by not knowing the meaning of many of the Letter Codings used by my more learned fellow members in their blogs. For this reason I have been compiling a list of the Acronyms and Abbreviations that are used on E-14. I have published this list twice in the last two years. My list currently has 262 entries. Appendix P on page 1166 of the Art of Electronics has a list of roughly 450 Acronyms and Abbreviations. Other Appendix listings that caught my eye are "B" How to Draw Schematic Diagrams. I have already learned that some of my present schematic drafting conventions went out of style in the 1950s. Yikes. Appendix J is on getting started with SPICE, something I have just started exploring.

 

I am excited to get started and despite my first concerns I am not the least bit disappointed. The passages that I have read so far are written clearly with the promise to actually deliver the review and knowledge that I was hoping for.

 

If you would like to learn more about what is inside this book you can check out the listing on Amazon.

 

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_22?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=the+art+of+electronics&sprefix=The+Art+of+Electronics%2Caps%2C878

 

Thanks again to Don for recommending "The Art of Electronics" to me.

  • Hi Guys.

     

    Just a quick note to let you know that I've been in touch with the authors of "Art of Electronics," and it looks like we're going to interview them here on element14. I've started a thread for you post any questions you would like us to ask them here.

     

    Cheers,
    Sagar

  • in reply to jw0752

    Hi John!

     

    It is great to hear of your experiences with the book. I agree too, answers would be helpful. To compensate it is good the authors are so helpful and responsive.

    I don't know if your copy is from the same factory as mine (it says printed in the USA), but the paper is so thin. The same number of pages (1,192) in a cheap paperback copy of 'les miserables' is thicker! I keep feeling it will tear. Anyway, that is a super minor criticism, I know I will look after it and take care, since I liked edition 2 enough to patiently wait more than a decade to get edition 3 ; )

  • UPDATE TO BLOG POST

    I am currently 50 pages into the book. This is the section of the book where they do a very quick and shallow job of introducing the basics and the passive components. This is very acceptable to me and in keeping with the intent of the authors as explained in the prefaces. I had a little trouble at first understanding the numbering scheme that was being used for the Figures. They are numbered:

    1.1., 1.2., ... 1.9., 1.10. ... 1.19., 1.20., ... 1.99., ... etc.  For some reason my old mathematician eyes were seeing decimal points instead of periods between the numbers. My experience has usually encountered dashes being used instead of the periods. Once I got used to the format it has ceased to be a problem for me.

     

    There has been one feature of the teaching scheme in the book that has been an irritation for me. At reasonable points the authors insert an Exercise into the text. It is like a little pop quiz, a short problem to help one test the knowledge that was just taught. These Exercises have been laid out well and catch my interest. After doing a couple of them on some scratch paper or in my head I went looking for an answer key so I could verify I was thinking and calculating correctly. When I couldn't find an answer key I emailed the authors at they books website. I know that there is a companion student workbook in the works and I was hoping that it might contain an answer key for these exercises. To their credit they were very prompt in their reply to me. Here is the reply that I received:

     

    "Hi John, we have avoided creating and handing out answers to the exercises, because they'r intended as thought provokers.  If you get stuck on one, don't hesitate to email for a little discussion.

    Win "
    For someone who self educates the lack of an answer key takes the fun out of doing the exercises. The feedback of doing the problem and being rewarded with an attaboy or a failure notice is important, at least for me, and a real part of the learning process.
    On the plus side the quality and the insightfulness of the information that is being presented is better than I expected. In just the first 50 pages I have several new insights that I have not understood before. I have bread boarded several simple circuits to verify that what is on the paper translates into the real world. This book is interesting and well written so it keeps my interest. Another plus has been that, unlike my previous favorite electronics book, I have not found any errata other than what was noted and listed on the books website.
    John
  • in reply to shabaz

    Hi Shabaz

    I am always a little disappointed in humanity when I see the science and engineering sections of libraries and bookstores. You can't blame the Library or the Book Store as they just respond to interest. I can't quite understand why the make believe, magic, pseudo science, and gaming slip into peoples heads so easily and ideas involving science and technology just seem to bounce off. I have kept the link on the book that Michael mentioned for future examination. For now I am going to concentrate on The Art. Incidentally I had a question about getting an answer key for the exercises that are listed throughout the book as I like to have a way to check and get feed back on my work. Over night one of the Authors, Winfield Hill, wrote back and explained that no answers have been provided as the exercises were put in only to provoke thought. He also offered to discuss a problem with me if I got stuck on one of them. I was quite impressed with his quick response to my question and his interest.

    John

  • Hi John!

     

    I got my copy recently too. I have a second edition too, and some content is the same, but some is different. A shame it is not slightly thicker paper though, since it is a good use of trees.

    I had not used the second edition much in recent years to be honest, but I feel either of the editions are good general books to read, they are easy to get into (no complex math) and are practical oriented.

    They help people move forward, learn stuff and get interested enough to research elsewhere too.

    I noticed in a few places the authors refer off to another volume that is still to be published, containing advanced topics, so I will probably get that when it is released too.

    The books are not enough though, they only touch on the topics (understandable since electronics is a broad subject). The book Michael mentions is very good too - more theory.

    Incidentally I was in a (possibly typical) public library in the UK a week ago (a town called Uxbridge), and was disappointed that the electrical engineering section of the fairly large library was so sparse and ancient; this was it:

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