Understanding electronics and technology

[weaksauce]

I want to... Don't know really how to put it, I want to understand the fundamentals of electricity I think, and how it is used in electronics and technology. I mean to actually know what electricity is, how it is and what electronic apparatus basically do, so that I have this complete knowledge of the fundemental basics of any thing that works electricity. And from that I will then know what a computer or TV or radio etc actually does and not through some simplified model.

So, where should I start? I'm thinking of something like reading it historically, how the first people understood it and how everything later evolved to this day. Do you know any good books I can read and so on?

 

[Davros]

any good
http://science.uniserve.edu.au/school/curric/stage6/phys/stw2002/sefton.pdf
http://www.jets.org/electronicsworkbench/ewb.html

 

[Dresden]

While you're studying, use my apartment as a case study on the topic of "most electrical outages in documented history."

 

[Albuquerque]

While you're studying, use my apartment as a case study on the topic of "most electrical outages in documented history."

I have zero clue why, but somehow your thread made me literally laugh out loud -- in my office no less!

"Back in the day" when Radio Shack was actually a worthwhile place to go, they had some excellent basic electronics books. I own quite a few; they were great for understanding the fundamentals of resistors, capacitors, relays, diodes and the like. Then you could progress to the fundamentals of digital logic, and from there...

I miss the "old" Radio Shack

 

[Davros]

we have a shop called maplins which is very like the old radio shack

 

[Frank]

Buy a breadboard, a multimeter and a solder iron with a small tip, take any old electronic device, take it apart, desolder all the small bits and start experimenting. Best way.

Although I would recommend you take apart old stuff, as the newer ones aren't much fun.

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

I have zero clue why, but somehow your thread made me literally laugh out loud -- in my office no less!

"Back in the day" when Radio Shack was actually a worthwhile place to go, they had some excellent basic electronics books. I own quite a few; they were great for understanding the fundamentals of resistors, capacitors, relays, diodes and the like. Then you could progress to the fundamentals of digital logic, and from there...

I miss the "old" Radio Shack

Hey, I have one of those! They are done like you just pinched someone's school exercise book.

I was going to recommend "Getting Started in Electronics" by Forrest M. Mimms III done by Radio Shack. Dunno if it's still available anywhere.

 

[Davros]

Frank we dont need to know how you built your pc

 

[Ty]

Buy a breadboard, a multimeter and a solder iron with a small tip, take any old electronic device, take it apart, desolder all the small bits and start experimenting. Best way.

Although I would recommend you take apart old stuff, as the newer ones aren't much fun.

How does that teach you what those parts really do or what their purpose is for?

Scenario:

• I remove part A, device stops functioning.
• I put part A back in, device works.
• I remove part B, device stops functioning.
• I put part B back in, device works.

I haven't learned at all, what A does as opposed to B. /me confused

 

[3dcgi]

A good free place to start is How Stuff Works. Then you can look elsewhere for details on what most interests you.

 

[RussSchultz]

I haven't learned at all, what A does as opposed to B. /me confused

Lemme help a bit.

There's magical gray smoke inside the pieces. If you let that out, everything stops working, and you can't put it back in.

 

[Fred]

How stuff works is a great site, but there are many layers to understand electronics and it depends exactly how far down the rabbit hole you wish to ride.

There's the practical side, which comes from learning how to build radios and things like that (or say deconstructing your pc, going to electrical power sites and taking the tour, etc). Further down the complexity islands you get into the sorts of classes undergrad EE majors do. Still, a lot of mystery though. You see how things work, and understand pieces, but the innerworkings of exactly *why* things do what they do remains apocryphal.

And then theres the true theoretical side, which comes from physics (first classical physics, then quantum mechanics). Unfortunately that too has many layers of complexity, and at the intro levels there is a lot of stuff that will remain semi mysterious, and its only at the high lvl of abstraction that things truly fall into place.

My advice: Check out Howstuff works and see if you are satisfied with it. Then go to a local bookstore and peruse a physics 101 textbook and read the 3 or 4 chapters on electricity and magnetism (at the end they usually throw in practical applications like televisions, generators, etc-- semiconductors usually after the QM section). Thats usually enough to satiate most people's curiosity without bogging them down with a ton of math and complexity.

 

[Frank]

How does that teach you what those parts really do or what their purpose is for?

Scenario:

• I remove part A, device stops functioning.
• I put part A back in, device works.
• I remove part B, device stops functioning.
• I put part B back in, device works.

I haven't learned at all, what A does as opposed to B. /me confused

No, you just take it apart completely, and use the parts on the breadboard to figure out how they work, with a bit of help from the internet.

 

[Scott_Arm]

This will help:

http://homestarrunner.com/sbemail143.html

 

[Ty]

No, you just take it apart completely, and use the parts on the breadboard to figure out how they work, with a bit of help from the internet.

Frankly Frank, I think Russ' explanation makes more sense...at least to me anyhow.