The Art of Electronics

RE: The Art of Electronics

bluescreen — Sun, 19 Apr 2015 23:59:39 GMT

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

RE: The Art of Electronics

jw0752 — Sat, 18 Apr 2015 05:36:49 GMT

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

RE: The Art of Electronics

shabaz — Wed, 15 Apr 2015 16:41:07 GMT

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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RE: The Art of Electronics

michaelwylie — Wed, 15 Apr 2015 05:24:28 GMT

I've also heard good things about this book, but I have a hard time with the pricing of most of these kinds of text. $103.80 is a lot of money for a book. The book I had for electronics was just over $190 (Sedra & Smith). In other countries people won't pay those prices for books, so they make it paper back, black and white, and strip off any digital items that may come with the book. The book for my class, on Amazon and at the bookstore was $190 or so, but you could buy the international version online for $4. That's right, FOUR DOLLARS. Here it is:

Microelectronic Circuits (HRW series in electrical engineering) by Sedra, Adel S.; Smith, K.C.: Saunders College Publish…