“There are no electrons”
Agreed. This is the first book that made stuff click for me and helped me enjoy electronics.
Ask HN: Best Layman's Book on Electricity
41–50 of 65 posts
Re: Ask HN: Best Layman's Book on Electricity
#42"Practical Electronics for Inventors" by Paul Scherz [0]. Not only does it have practical circuits it also has chapters on theory presented in such a way as to have me understand it. I think many of the books I read in the past shied away from complex math, linear algebra, etc. whereas PEfI uses them as needed. "The Art of Electronics", for example, I found to be absolutely abysmal. It's not an in depth book, it's pr…
> "The Art of Electronics", for example, I found to be absolutely abysmal. Agreed. I had this damn thing collecting dust on my coffee table until someone expressed interest and took it off my hands. I'll check out the PEfI book. I don't consider myself a total noob, but I'd also fail the first week's exam in any EE intro course.
I agree too. AoE is more a cookbook than a textbook.
Re: Ask HN: Best Layman's Book on Electricity
#43I learned electronics from Forest Mims III.
Re: Ask HN: Best Layman's Book on Electricity
#44YouTube + personal labs were far more effective and enjoyable in my experience.
Electroboom and Eeevblog are a couple great channels to get started.
The recommendation engine will pick up pretty quickly.
Re: Ask HN: Best Layman's Book on Electricity
#45Decades ago, like in the 1950's perhaps, the US Navy created a training manual about electricity and electronics for its personnel (a reasonable facsimile of laymen). This was used as the basis for a book called Basic Electricity . 1970: https://www.amazon.ca/Basic-Electricity-Bureau-Naval-Personn... 2002: https://www.amazon.ca/Handbook-Basic-Electricity-Naval-Perso... 2020: https://www.amazon.ca/Basic-Electricity-Bu…
Extending from this, there’s also the NEETS reading material: https://www.hnsa.org/manuals-documents/2575-2/
Re: Ask HN: Best Layman's Book on Electricity
#46Here's a good reading about problems with teaching electricity: "Why Electricity is hard to understand?" http://amasci.com/miscon/whyhrd3.html
Oh man, this is great.
I was always confused with this stuff and didn't notice that this is such a big mess...
Thank you
Re: Ask HN: Best Layman's Book on Electricity
#47Since it is important not to die, NFPA 70. No multivariable calculus required.
https://www.nfpa.org/codes-and-standards/all-codes-and-stand...
If you want to know the why, get the handbook too.
https://catalog.nfpa.org/NFPA-70-National-Electrical-Code-NE...
Alternatively, Epigram 48.
Good luck.
Re: Ask HN: Best Layman's Book on Electricity
#48Closely related to this! Does anyone know of any good books that would build upon this knowledge as an introduction to integrating RF / the theory of RF circuits, antennae's etc?
I suggest the ARRL Handbook for Radio Amateurs.
Re: Ask HN: Best Layman's Book on Electricity
#49Since it is important not to die, NFPA 70. No multivariable calculus required. https://www.nfpa.org/codes-and-standards/all-codes-and-stand... If you want to know the why, get the handbook too. https://catalog.nfpa.org/NFPA-70-National-Electrical-Code-NE... Alternatively, Epigram 48. Good luck.
I honestly wonder why such a book costs $150.
As a layperson, I would have thought that not dying from electric shock must be a pretty timeless body of knowledge. So I’d expect the cost of research, writing and publishing to have been spread out over many decades, in contrast to other literature. How come the book is so relatively expensive? Does electrical code change so often?
Re: Ask HN: Best Layman's Book on Electricity
#50Since it is important not to die, NFPA 70. No multivariable calculus required. https://www.nfpa.org/codes-and-standards/all-codes-and-stand... If you want to know the why, get the handbook too. https://catalog.nfpa.org/NFPA-70-National-Electrical-Code-NE... Alternatively, Epigram 48. Good luck.
I honestly wonder why such a book costs $150. As a layperson, I would have thought that not dying from electric shock must be a pretty timeless body of knowledge. So I’d expect the cost of research, writing and publishing to have been spread out over many decades, in contrast to other literature. How come the book is so relatively expensive? Does electrical code change so often?
It's something that's a) a business expense for the target group and b) something they don't really have an alternative to. It's not like you can go "nah, those local electrical standards are to expensive, I'll use the ones from Pakistan instead".