Art of electronics or learning art of electronics? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: manubali
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: August 31, 2017, 09:41:38 am
content: Hi, i was planning to buy art of electronics, but then i came across learning art of electronics. Can anyone tell what's the difference in both of them?And which one should suits to a beginner?

author: bd139
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 31, 2017, 09:54:29 am
content: Art of Electronics = reference guide with questions in it.Learning the Art of Electronics = tutorial end to end. Doesn't need the above but refers to it.I'm loathed to recommend the latter. I have a copy and it's chock full of stupid mistakes, requires a ton of equipment and parts that are quite expensive and difficult to get hold of. The education you'll get is unbeatable but ugh the barrier to entry is way more than just the book.

author: Kingjon
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: August 31, 2017, 09:14:38 pm
content: I read the 2nd edition of the Art of electronics about 10 years ago. I still use it from time to time. If you don't have either I would go for both the 3rd ed and the learning the art of electronics. Both are very useful.I love the Learning the art of electronics and so do my 13 and 15 yr old children. I know that's a bit crazy.

author: CD4007UB
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: August 31, 2017, 11:00:21 pm
content: I'd hesitate to recommend "Art of Electronics" to an absolute beginner. It's an excellent book to learn from when you've covered the basics elsewhere, but it contains a lot of material that is at intermediate rather than beginner's level.An alternative is to look online. For example, Electronics I & II by Analog Devices athttps://wiki.analog.com/university/courses/electronics/text/electronics-toc. You can learn the basics with their USB-powered ADALM1000, a solderless breadboard and a few components. The recently released ADALM2000 is more powerful (works up to ~10MHz), and looks similar to Digilent's Analog Discovery 2 (also very capable, but more expensive then the ADALM1000). For DC and audio-frequency use, the NI myDAQ (discounted for students) is also excellent - that's what we currently use to teach our first-year UG electronics (with LabVIEW, which is fun to use).Once you've learned the basic ideas of analogue and digital circuits, "The Art of Electronics" is great for providing deeper understanding.

author: kg4arn
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 03, 2017, 07:22:20 pm
content: I think that the second edition student manual is better for learning.

author: bd139
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 03, 2017, 07:59:11 pm
content: (apart from the complete non availability of a large chunk of the parts)Check the digital section.You can still get 99% of the 1st edition "laboratory manual" parts (!) however.

author: anvoice
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 03, 2017, 11:27:34 pm
content: I also wouldn't recommend the Art of Electronics to a beginner. I consider myself technically and mathematically minded but as a beginner in electronics I didn't find it to be a beginner's tutorial, hence deferred further reading until I cover the basics elsewhere.

author: rstofer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 04, 2017, 08:43:55 pm
content: "Beginner" in what sense? First year at university majoring in EE or a hobbyist wondering what they need to know?For the university student the books may be excellent references and the lab manual is probably the more useful. There will be a required text for the class so "The Art..." may be redundant although it still might be a useful reference.For the hobbyist, I would suggest deciding on an area of interest. Audio, microcontrollers, RF, whatever, and then see what's available on Google. Go build stuff and work through the technical details as you go along. Have fun! Don't spend your time on lab assignments that someone else thinks are important.The big problem for hobbyists (generalizing) is going to be the math. In the end, electronics, like any engineering major, is all math. Pretty hard math in later years and even though "The Art..." tries to tamp down the math, that really isn't possible. You just can't get to the time response of an RLC circuit without a boatload of math. As a hobbyist, you probably don't need this, as an EE student you do.Both books are a standard in the industry. They are well known and used by many. Whether they are useful depends on what you want to learn.What do you need to know right off the bat? Ohm's Law - that will cover most of what you need to know. Next up is Kirchoff's Laws (Current Law and Voltage Law, often called KCL and KVL). These three will get you a very long way in circuit analysis. Digilent has a classroom video series that cover thesehttps://learn.digilentinc.com/classroom/realanalog/This series might be useful (there are others):http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/dccircuits/dcp_1.html