Practical Electronics for Inventors 2/E [Paperback]

This book's intended audience is the serious engineer (probably with an engineering degree in a field other than electronics) looking to get into electronics. The book's title hints at this, and the book delivers on this level. This book is too advanced for the neophyte dabbler without any math background, who will quickly get lost in the math and the lack of "cookbook" examples. Make no mistake, there are plenty of example circuits, but they're provided to illustrate concepts-- they're not intended to be a recipe for constructing a real circuit (that's for the engineer to do!)

MATH: To appreciate this book, you must have a decent math background. This includes a solid working knowledge of advanced algebra and trigonometry, along with a 10000 foot view of calculus. A full working knowledge of actually solving differential equations is NOT required, but it's extremely helpful to know what derivatives and integrals look like and what they generally mean. However, the author never requires that you actually know how to solve any differential equations. Also, this book uses complex number theory, but the author provides all the details of complex number theory in the book, so there is no need to know it before reading.

After all those caveats, this is an excellent comprehensive introductory book on virtually all fundamental phenomenon and components of electronics. This includes the physics of the various electrical phenomenon, the real-life components that make up electronic circuits, and the basic "building-block" circuits that real-life circuits are built from. See the table of contents in Amazon's "look-inside" feature for an idea of the scope of topics. If you read and understand this book cover to cover, you will be designing, building, and testing your own basic circuits, without the need to ever rely on a "cookbook" circuit again.

This book does NOT cover the following:
* Advanced building-block circuits
* Specialty components and circuits
* Techniques and guidelines for designing difficult and advanced circuits
* The many "tricks" for designing and debugging circuits that years of experience will teach
* Advanced math for detailed analysis of circuits

The author's style is, above all else, pragmatic in every respect all the way to the very end. The explanations have the unmistakable and incessant theme of "THIS IS HOW IT WORKS AND WHY". The author trudges through as much (or as little) detail as necessary to enable the bright mind to understand, and then moves on to the next topic. Even when there is pure theory out of necessity, the author's style never strays far from cornerstone of always keeping things down to earth and practical.

This book is full of extensive explanations of the "WHY" of various phenomenon and components. For example, the phenomenon of "inductance" goes on for a dozen pages or so, explaining how the motion of electrons creates a magnetic field in a charging inductor, and how the magnetic fields create a back-voltage which acts against the flow of current. This explanation of inductance is decorated with dozens of detailed 3D illustrations showing the wire, electrons, magnetic fields, currents, voltages, etc. Other phenomenon are described in similar detail. The physics and theory that the author presents do not overwhelm you, but are sufficient to leave you feeling like you really understand the phenomenon, rather than just having to accept something as magic.

I gave this book 4 stars instead of 5 because there are too many errata, especially in the theory section. The book is in need of a simple editing pass by a person who understands EE. This is a shame because most of the errata are silly typos or accidental oversights, but they can confuse your ability to understand something when you're learning for the first time.

Just got the second edition. Most of the errors are still there. Glaring math errors. Schematic errors. Simple Example: 100 Watts/12 Volts is NOT 0.8 Amps. It's 8.4 Amps. Nor is 1.5 Volts * .1 Amps = .1 Watts. Both of these errors appear on page 15. These are minor examples. There are many others that aren't so minor and will send you down the wrong path. The errors are frequent and irritating. Basically, this is a resource only useful to readers willing to double check every concept before applying any of it. Hardly "practical".

Ok, so I see people praising this book and hating it. Those kind of reviews bug me because I can never make up my mind on a book. Fortunately, I bought this book already and didn't read these reviews.

Here's my take. I'm 8 years out of college and working for a big electronics company. I like this book. I need something to help me tinker with electronics and at the same time provide theory. I like the balance that this book strikes. I want to be able to look up old semiconductor company IC logos and at the same time read about RLC ckts resonating. That practical knowledge is hard to come by. There are plenty of good theory books, but I'm tired of amassing a library of many specialized, academic-style books. This book is not a text book, so the "inventor" part of the title should be paid attention to. If you want practice questions for theory understanding, buy a Schaum's Outline. This is the book to grab if you want to suddenly look up a basic logic gate that you forgot or you want to learn/review FM radio.

This book and Art of Electronics will get you into electronics with practical understanding. Get those and some of Forrest Mim's books for simple projects and you'll be good to go.

Good luck.