The Art of Electronics! some questions... - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: junwoo091400
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: December 31, 2016, 08:06:18 am
content: Hi, I am planning to buy 'The Art of Electronics'.And found another version of it: "Hands on lab-course".So... my question is:"Is the 'lab-course' one enough to supplement the ORIGINAL book?"* Does 'lab-course' one have equivalent amount of information compared to the original book???@) Anyone whom have read those books, help me

author: JoeN
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 31, 2016, 10:54:13 am
content: The lab manual is meant to be in addition to the main book. The main book is an in-depth introduction to electronics as a semi-academic book. The lab manual is a hands-on walkthrough of building up circuits, measuring them, and explaining why they work the way they do. That's why there is a parts list for that book.http://learningtheartofelectronics.com/parts-lists/parts-lists/More Info:http://learningtheartofelectronics.com/Obviously, a lot of these parts are generic and if you have a half decent lab you will have a lot of similar parts that you can substitute in already.

author: djnz
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 31, 2016, 01:49:29 pm
content: Just my personal experience:I think it depends on how well you know the material. I think the main book conveys more in relatively fewer words, but to appreciate it properly, it would be better if you already had some knowledge of the material.I think the lab book (Learning the Art of Electronics) is more verbose, and tries more to point out the significance of concepts and results - "why should you know this". It's a little more hand-holding. Sometimes, that's good - it will help you understand the importance of some concept. At other times it will feel a little slow because you are left feeling that "of course this is significant ... no need to spend so many pages on that..."

author: RCHRDM
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 31, 2016, 07:39:11 pm
content: I bought both books. Be aware, though, that if you want to do the lab exercises, you will need to a couple of hundred dollars in parts and a breadboarding system. The particular breadboard that they recommend can be purchased used on eBay. Global Specialties Proto-Board PB-503There is a good site here:http://learningtheartofelectronics.com/The author seems to be happy to answer questions.Richard

author: junwoo091400
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: January 01, 2017, 02:08:46 am
content: Quote from: djnz on December 31, 2016, 01:49:29 pm=> Wow, because of your explanation, I can see what relationships those two books have! Thank you!!Um... so do you think it was worth it to buy 2 books? Have you read all of them?(Such a GIANT book.... It probably would take me several months... or more!)

author: djnz
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 01, 2017, 07:55:53 am
content: Haha - it took them decades to write them, so I think it's okay if it it takes months to read themIf you are serious about electronics, I think the main book (The AoE) is a very good buy. It's a good reference book as well - for example it has information that will help you choose parts for your designs. Some of this info is not present in the datasheet of those parts - the authors performed measurements and characterized the parts themselves. And it's not nitpicking - it's stuff that you'd actually care about for say low noise applications etc. Very useful. Thus, even if you know the material well, the book is still useful as a reference.The lab book (Learning The AoE) might be less useful for veteran masters who are experts with experience. For someone younger, I think it's particularly useful if you are going to build the circuits from it, do the work. Useful if you want to test your understanding and predict what will happen in a specific circuit and compare it with what actually happens. Or perhaps even just to predict without building in some cases. It is more like a college lab course book. However this book is not a reference book that is perpetually useful. There is a chance that you'll simply outgrow the book - know the material well enough to not have a need to go back to this book. But then, that's a good problem to have, and you could perhaps sell the book at that point.If you have the budget, buy both.