Complete Electronics Self-Teaching Guide with Projects

Earl Boysen,Harry Kybett

• Verlag: Wiley
• Jahr: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781118282328
• Auflage: 4
• Thema: Technologie et ingénierie
• Thema: Ingénierie de l'électricité et des télécommunications

An all-in-one resource on everything electronics-related!

For almost 30 years, this book has been a classic text for electronics enthusiasts. Now completely updated for today's technology, this latest version combines concepts, self-tests, and hands-on projects to offer you a completely repackaged and revised resource. This unique self-teaching guide features easy-to-understand explanations that are presented in a user-friendly format to help you learn the essentials you need to work with electronic circuits.

All you need is a general understanding of electronics concepts such as Ohm's law and current flow, and an acquaintance with first-year algebra. The question-and-answer format, illustrative experiments, and self-tests at the end of each chapter make it easy for you to learn at your own speed.

• Boasts a companion website that includes more than twenty full-color, step-by-step projects
• Shares hands-on practice opportunities and conceptual background information to enhance your learning process
• Targets electronics enthusiasts who already have a basic knowledge of electronics but are interested in learning more about this fascinating topic on their own
• Features projects that work with the multimeter, breadboard, function generator, oscilloscope, bandpass filter, transistor amplifier, oscillator, rectifier, and more

You're sure to get a charge out of the vast coverage included in Complete Electronics Self-Teaching Guide with Projects!

Chapter 1

DC Review and Pre-Test

Electronics cannot be studied without first understanding the basics of electricity. This chapter is a review and pre-test on those aspects of direct current (DC) that apply to electronics. By no means does it cover the whole DC theory, but merely those topics that are essential to simple electronics.

This chapter reviews the following:

• Current flow
• Potential or voltage difference
• Ohm's law
• Resistors in series and parallel
• Power
• Small currents
• Resistance graphs
• Kirchhoff's Voltage Law
• Kirchhoff's Current Law
• Voltage and current dividers
• Switches
• Capacitor charging and discharging
• Capacitors in series and parallel

Current Flow

1 Electrical and electronic devices work because of an electric current.

Question

What is an electric current?

Answer

An electric current is a flow of electric charge. The electric charge usually consists of negatively charged electrons. However, in semiconductors, there are also positive charge carriers called holes.

2 There are several methods that can be used to generate an electric current.

Question

Write at least three ways an electron flow (or current) can be generated.

Answer

The following is a list of the most common ways to generate current:

• Magnetically—This includes the induction of electrons in a wire rotating within a magnetic field. An example of this would be generators turned by water, wind, or steam, or the fan belt in a car.
• Chemically—This involves the electrochemical generation of electrons by reactions between chemicals and electrodes (as in batteries).
• Photovoltaic generation of electrons—This occurs when light strikes semiconductor crystals (as in solar cells).

Less common methods to generate an electric current include the following:

• Thermal generation—This uses temperature differences between thermocouple junctions. Thermal generation is used in generators on spacecrafts that are fueled by radioactive material.
• Electrochemical reaction—This occurs between hydrogen, oxygen, and electrodes (fuel cells).
• Piezoelectrical—This involves mechanical deformation of piezoelectric substances. For example, piezoelectric material in the heels of shoes power LEDs that light up when you walk.

3 Most of the simple examples in this book contain a battery as the voltage source. As such, the source provides a potential difference to a circuit that enables a current to flow. An electric current is a flow of electric charge. In the case of a battery, electrons are the electric charge, and t...