Teach Yourself Electricity and Electronics, Sixth Edition

This is a COMPREHENSIVE tutorial which assumes the reader has a high school education and at least average memory.Pros:2016 version. I passed up MULTIPLE "classic texts" which were written 30-40-50 years ago. I wanted a more recent treatment.Language used is not excessively complex. "Jargon" or terms of art, are defined well, often using practical, every-day examples.Repetition of key points occurs constantly.Numerous small charts, tables, and simple illustrations bring life to the concepts discussed.Chapter quizzes test comprehension constantly. [Hint: Write your answers on separate sheet.]Chapters are well organized and neither too long nor too short.You will likely find that science has advanced such that some of what was taught in high school decades ago has been revised/replaced.Strict, logical, progression of concepts and applications.Arduino is covered; Raspberry Pi is not.Some very useful radio theory and practice is covered--this was a key selling point for me.While care is taken to avoid treatment of excessively complex subjects, authors take pains to avoid "absolutes" or misinformation.CONS:The subject matter is adult and, at times, unavoidably complex. REPETITION MAY BE ESSENTIAL TO MASTER THE SUBJECT MATTER.Some higher math might be beyond the reader's interest/capacity. I found no calculus in my skimming, but did note terms and math concepts beyond my level of interest or need.Some programming discussion may be beyond the reader's interest or capacity.VERDICT: While I am glad that I bought THIS text, it is making me work my butt off due to advancing age and memory weakness. This text will help me with my HAM radio work. Make no mistake, though. this is work.

A great updated edition for those who might be looking for a refresher course, or just simply a beginner/maker in the field of electricity and electronics. Some sections may come across a bit intimidating, but the text is written well enough for even the beginner to understand. I had first seen the 5th edition of this book at my local bookstore; thinking that this book had too many chapters/subsections to be that all that thorough and in-depth, but I quickly learned that this book didn't lack anything at all. I was amazed at how well everything was laid out. The material is presented in such a way that makes everything so very easy to learn without all the confusion at the same time. After completely enjoying the 5th edition, I was anxious for the arrival of this new and updated 6th edition. If you're looking for a well rounded text, than this new edition may be right for you. The biggest difference between editions is that the 6th edition now includes Audrino hardware and programming, an improved Microcontrollers section, and other updated information of other sections, as well as updated practice tests and exams. I strongly recommend this book first over any of those expensive textbooks out there. After All, if you're out to achieve a good understanding of electricity and electronics, or studying for an entrance exam for a technical job position, this book will help you do that. It's a great book for teaching you the subjects of electricity and electronics, that later tests your knowledge of it. I highly recommend this updated edition of "Teach Yourself Electricity and Electronics, 6th edition," as well as any other Stan Gibilisco and/or Simon Monk book.

I have a background in software and I wanted to learn some basic electronics for Arduino and similar projects, so I bought this book. I did not buy this book to learn Arduino itself, rather I wanted to learn about all of the other things that one might plug into an Arduino. The book covers a broad range of topics, including Ohm's law, DC/AC, MOSFETs, diodes, amplification, resistors, how multimeters work, audio, radio frequency, and more. This book does a GREAT job explaining all of these topics and the end-of-chapter quizzes are indispensable for testing my retention.The writing is clear and fairly terse, with a lot of practical notes (engineers usually do/say X). I feel the very light treatments of anecdote or history show the authors have great respect for the reader's time and attention and they do a great job presenting the information concisely and then moving on to the next topic. I have further questions about some topics but I think that's good -- this book covers the foundations and I have enough information to learn more on my own.I started with a paper copy but I got tired of lugging it around (it's huge and weighs a few pounds) so I bought the Kindle version, too, which is also excellent. The tables and diagrams are very easy to read in the Kindle version. Overall this book has been a great resource and I would definitely recommend this book to someone who wants to learn about electronics.