Reading "The Art of Electronics"... - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: dastructhm
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: May 14, 2022, 10:01:55 pm
content: . it's soooo time consuming...A single page is loaded with lots of points and details. You gotta sit there and read ALL DAY to achieve something. So...when can someone finish All of it and become a good engineer?(It comes with 1127 pages, not to mention its Lab book and X Chapter book)

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 14, 2022, 10:15:36 pm
content: What is the point of your posing this and other threads?Getting good at anything is time consuming and reading one book is the smallest part of it. And if you don't find it fun, but hard and laborious, then you are not likely to have fun doing the actual job either.And you are not going to get good after reading it anyway. It is like 1% of the total effort required.You don't need to read the book to do hands on projects either. Just read it at the pace you like. Or don't read it at all. There are lots of people that never even touched it, and they are doing fine.

author: Kerlin
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 14, 2022, 11:53:25 pm
content: If you don't want to read books its simple, just do what others do and declare yourself and instant expert.BUT, you must first get a formal education in electronics. There are many here who think they can get an education just by hanging out on a forum.You don't need to read one book you need to read as many as possible all your life.If you don't continue reading you end up like a lot of old boys, stuck in the days of the 6502 and analogue transistor circuits, or even valves.I do have such old boy friends, they cant even comprehend or follow a thread or even a single post.I see that here that's why I limit posts, its a waste of time.I currently reading a 3528 page data sheet on the STM32H74. I know if I don't do I wont understand it or be able to use it - simple.Your definitely not going to make the grade just by reading one book.As the Engineering Manager I have run interviews were I have had to offer pay close to my own to get competent people to even come to an interview. Some one who can quickly fix something, complete it and it works for years.

author: tggzzz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 15, 2022, 12:02:54 am
content: I have been reading TAoE for over 35 years, and I'm still enjoying it and learning things.Ataradov's first paragraph ("What is the point of your posing this and other threads?" ) is relevant and useful.

author: Kerlin
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 15, 2022, 12:05:15 am
content: Doh! see what I mean. Bye.

author: bdunham7
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 15, 2022, 12:26:55 am
content: Quote from: dastructhm on May 14, 2022, 10:01:55 pmIf you struggle to understand every point as you read it, you may lack the required fundamental educational background in math, physics and perhaps EE basics. I'm not sure reading The AoE is the best way to start, at least not trying to grind through the whole thing. If you are at the point where you understand most of the points quite readily as they are presented, but then when you read about some circuit or technique you can say "Hmmm. I've never thought of that, but it makes sense" --then The AoE may be the book for you.The alternative is to skim through it knowing you don't understand all the details and then go make some stuff. Nothing wrong with that, but you aren't going to become an EE that way.

author: rstofer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 15, 2022, 12:48:46 am
content: Quote from: dastructhm on May 14, 2022, 10:01:55 pmAn engineering degree takes around 132 units of classwork and about 5 years. About 30 of those units are nonsense: History, English Lit, other such courses. But at least 100 units are hardcore classes and to complete 132 units in 5 years, you need to take about 13 units per semester (two semesters per year). Twelve of those units will be hardcore classes each semester. Primarily math but a lot of theory as well. Figure 40 hours per week of homework, maybe a little less if you're really bright.LTAoE is good for about 2 semesters of 4 unit classes.Here is the program at a local university:https://catalog.pacific.edu/stocktongeneral/schoolofengineeringandcomputerscience/electricalengineering/#majortextWander around and see what you think. Other universities will be much the same. Note that this program requires 152 units. That's 15-16 units per semester, two semesters per year for 5 of the longest years of your life!That's what it takes to become a 'good engineer' except for the part where you know absolutely nothing of value when you graduate. So, it's off to grad school for another year and now you know you don't know anything. Then you start working in the field.Notice all the math classes? Yes, we did all those!For giggles, look into the electrical engineeering program at Khan Academy. It's a place to start.https://www.khanacademy.org/science/electrical-engineering

author: xrunner
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 15, 2022, 01:06:43 am
content: Quote from: dastructhm on May 14, 2022, 10:01:55 pmWhen can someone finish all of it and become a good engineer? No one can answer that question because every person is different. Besides reading (and understanding) one book ain't the end of it.Shoot, when I graduated and got into industry I knew I didn't know that much. I worked in a lab and they decided they wanted to start doing a lot of data acquisition with PCs and daq cards, guess who got that task ... me. Go buy all the stuff you need and make it work. So I had to read about all that hardware and software and figure it all out so that was more reading and learning. It never ends really. But it's not work if you like those kind of challenges. If you succeed you get more tasks and there's always stuff you don't understand but you have to go find out on your own and keep at it.I think more members could tell you and it won't really matter though.

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 15, 2022, 02:23:58 am
content: Quote from: rstofer on May 15, 2022, 12:48:46 amThat's exactly right.

author: armandine2
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2022, 09:50:19 am
content: Reading and doing - the right balance - inherent difficulty - more questions than answers?lots to think about in The Art of Electronics - my recurring memory was when our class were given one of the circuit ideas to implement (no one succeeded)

author: tepalia02
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 20, 2022, 10:49:05 am
content: Hi, Is there any specific topic that you want to understand?

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 20, 2022, 05:21:52 pm
content: Quote from: dastructhm on May 14, 2022, 10:01:55 pmAre you trolling? You're not going to become a "good engineer" by reading that book. Once you've gotten all the way through it and understand the material you'll have a decent background from which to start learning hobby electronics. If you want to be an actual engineer you're going to need years of much harder material in school.

author: DanInvents
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: May 21, 2022, 07:29:43 am
content: When I read The Art of Electronics, I already had a BSc, MSc and I was almost through my PhD in Physics. Even though I had taken many courses on electronics, specialised in electronics and done electronics design working for two companies, reading this book marked a before and after in my career. I read the book from cover to cover and learned how to design electronics whilst having fun.I have also had the opportunity to put into practice what I learned by reading this book both as a hobby and at work. On many occasions I would think in disbelief "Holy cr*p this thing works!". This is because this book condensates over 30 years of electronics design expertise. As a result, my electronics design skills improved considerably.You might wonder, where did I get the time to read such a big book? The answer is simple, I read it in the bus every day on my way to work. All that it takes is patience, and the time that you invest reading it will be highly rewarded.

author: eugene
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 21, 2022, 10:30:30 pm
content: TAoE is not a tutorial. It's a reference. You read relevant sections to help solve specific problems. Reading it from cover to cover with the expectation of becoming good at electronics is like reading the ANSI C++ specifications with the hope of becoming a good programmer.

author: sleemanj
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 22, 2022, 02:40:32 am
content: Given post history, TAOE is the wrong book. Get "Make: Electronics" by Charles Platt and start there, it's a good introduction and foundation in the field, for hobbiests.

author: rstofer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 22, 2022, 04:59:27 pm
content: A little more elementary but the Forrest Mims books are very good for a hobby level understanding:https://www.amazon.com/s?k=forrest+mimsIt would be quite useful to have some practical knowledge of electronics before starting an EE program. I could make a similar comment re: some background in math. The more the better because the EE program has a bunch of math classes followed by math classes retitled as engineering because, well, engineering IS math. You can't sign up for Signal Processing without expecting to do a TON of math. Control Systems is another math heavy course. Pay attention when the topic of Partial Fraction Expansion comes up (I forget which math course covers this).Khan Academy Electrical EngineeringCalc Workshop (costs money but so do books!)3blue1brownTools:SymbolabDesmos

author: jasonRF
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 23, 2022, 12:32:15 pm
content: Quote from: DanInvents on May 21, 2022, 07:29:43 amI also started reading TAoE after multiple degrees (EE in my case) although I didn't specialize in electronics in school and have never done electronics professionally.More to the point, though, is that TAoE is often used in physics department electronics courses designed for students who have taken at least a few semesters of college-level math and physics. The authors do not write out examples showing the algebra and such, since they assume the reader has a solid background in math - and that they know how to actually use the math that they have learned. Readers without this background can certainly learn a lot from the book, but the authors may seem to make even more leaps of logic in some places. I suspect the books by Forest Mims that rstofer mentioned are a better choice for readers without that background.Quote from: dastructhm on May 14, 2022, 10:01:55 pmYes, the authors move very quickly and every page has a lot of material. They spend at most 150 pages on the material that my first semester-long EE class covered (linear AC and DC circuits; ideal opamp circuits; elementary diode, BJT, FET circuits). But the book we used for that intro class was about 600 pages long, and we covered almost all of it. That class was about 15-16 weeks, with 3 lecture hours per week and 2ish hours of reading/homework for each lecture. After including time spent studying for quizzes and tests this adds up to well over 160 hours, just to learn at most 10% of the material in TAoE.So don't expect it to be fast!jason

author: Terry Bites
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 24, 2022, 12:01:46 pm
content: Stop gaming and watching TV. Read instead.

author: TimFox
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 24, 2022, 03:42:46 pm
content: Quote from: eugene on May 21, 2022, 10:30:30 pmMany years after my formal education (and a few years after my retirement), I certainly don't remember everything that I was taught, but I do remember much of what I was exposed to, and how to find the (now forgotten) details in appropriate references. Having an "encyclopedic" reference is always useful, especially if one has previously studied or learned or been exposed to the material.