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Ask HN: What are some good resources to learn how electricity works?

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Re: Ask HN: What are some good resources to learn how electricity works?

#171

Post by tommaho »

peterwoerner wrote: post #142
basjacobs wrote: post #47

I highly recommend the All About Circuits textbook: https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/textbook/ It starts from the very basics and builds up to quite complex circuits and their workings. It's an all-round great website, too.

Mechatronics text books tend to be useful. They are written for mechanical engineers who intend to build circuits and software for mechanic-electronic systems. So they tend to have practical information for those who want to start building electronic circuits now, but have no electrical background.

Have any specific recommendations for a hobbyist and outsider to formal mechanical and electrical engineering disciplines? Thanks!

Re: Ask HN: What are some good resources to learn how electricity works?

#173

Post by InnerGargoyle »

z3ro wrote: post #82

The Story of Electricity - BBC Documentary FullHD 1080p https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUUeGianTKM Its sn excellent 3 hour documentary on how electricity was discovered.

just watched it last week. hence increased curiosity about this thread..

Re: Ask HN: What are some good resources to learn how electricity works?

#174

Post by bitxbitxbitcoin »

Watching Youtube videos of real people trying electrical builds (wiring a shed, van, new house, etc), then reading the comments by real electricians telling them all the places they've messed up and aren't to code has actually been a very good learning experience for me.

Re: Ask HN: What are some good resources to learn how electricity works?

#175

Post by p0llard »

PascLeRasc wrote: post #164
lmilcin wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Electronics is about building useful circuits. Do you really need to understand what precisely happens within any of the parts? No, not really. I can't imagine what happens to electrons in MOSFET nor do I care. For my purpose it represents some transfer function which is what I use to build the circuit. When I think about OpAmp, the physics is not one of things I am thinking. My mental model of OpAmp has no physics i…

EE degree here to back you up. I believe you're correct, electronics is to electricity what software engineering is to CS. It's the practical application with as little depth as you can get away with. For example there's some bits of RF you'll learn when you look at 45 vs 90° PCB traces, but you don't need finite-difference time domain equations to understand what's going on.

> electronics is to electricity what software engineering is to CS

I would respectfully disagree with this assertion.

I'm pretty sure my colleagues who are designing novel FinFET transistors for low noise applications are "doing electronics", and I'm also pretty certain that they're considering the underlying semi-conductor physics in some pretty serious depth; they're definitely not trying to work with "as little depth as [they] can get away with".

Electronics as a discipline encompasses people working at many levels of abstraction, including those working at a very low level. I think transistor designers would be very amused (or perhaps offended?) if you were to claim that they weren't doing "proper electronics" because they're actually thinking about things in depth in a very analytic way.

Re: Ask HN: What are some good resources to learn how electricity works?

#176

Post by PascLeRasc »

p0llard wrote: post #175
PascLeRasc wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

EE degree here to back you up. I believe you're correct, electronics is to electricity what software engineering is to CS. It's the practical application with as little depth as you can get away with. For example there's some bits of RF you'll learn when you look at 45 vs 90° PCB traces, but you don't need finite-difference time domain equations to understand what's going on.

> electronics is to electricity what software engineering is to CS I would respectfully disagree with this assertion. I'm pretty sure my colleagues who are designing novel FinFET transistors for low noise applications are "doing electronics", and I'm also pretty certain that they're considering the underlying semi-conductor physics in some pretty serious depth; they're definitely not trying to work with "as little de…

Oh I wouldn't ever claim component design is anything but complex. I was just trying to make a distinction between high-level fields and something like embedded hardware integration where you can treat each component as a "black box" of sorts and just care about I/O and operating characteristics. I don't mean to diminish your colleagues' work, it sounds fascinating.

Re: Ask HN: What are some good resources to learn how electricity works?

#177

Post by lukas099 »

morganvachon wrote: post #40

I'm showing my age here, but I got my start with the series of books by Forrest Mims that were available in Radio Shack stores since the 70s. They are written to be understood by complete novices, and they have hand-drawn circuits with everything explained. http://www.forrestmims.org/publications.html

This book really helped me, as well.

Re: Ask HN: What are some good resources to learn how electricity works?

#179

Post by HankB99 »

jschwartzi wrote: post #123
HankB99 wrote: post #104

I'm on the opposite side of this question. I've offered to explain motorcycle charging systems in terms anyone can understand. My thought is to use the water flow analogy. Voltage => pressure. Current => flow volume. Resistance => constrictions in the system (or things where the water does work.) Flow at one point in the system must match flow in other parts except for places where water can accumulate (battery => pr…

Bad starting can also be a result of physical resistance in the engine, especially as temperatures fall below the normal operating range. When engines get cold enough they put enormous load on the starter motor which has to draw more amperage to compensate. I think it's very important to teach people that moving electric charges, represented by current, result in magnetic forces, and that these magnetic forces are wh…

Good points - I'll be sure to include.

Re: Ask HN: What are some good resources to learn how electricity works?

#180

Post by HankB99 »

mtgp1000 wrote: post #155
jschwartzi wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bad starting can also be a result of physical resistance in the engine, especially as temperatures fall below the normal operating range. When engines get cold enough they put enormous load on the starter motor which has to draw more amperage to compensate. I think it's very important to teach people that moving electric charges, represented by current, result in magnetic forces, and that these magnetic forces are wh…

>Bad starting can also be a result of physical resistance in the engine, especially as temperatures fall below the normal operating range. Is that true? Low temperatures directly affect the maximum output current of the battery, but I don't think engine tolerances are such that the engine starts to effectively seize up below freezing.

Lubricants get thicker at lower temperatures.
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