Is it true that...

[Anthony!]

Electronics is easy... it's just plumbing with math? 

[Anthony!]

I'm sorry for such a weird first post... this place is rather intimidating so I wanted to break the ice...

[bdunham7]

Sure, if you think math is easy.  Somewhere above 200MHz it gets a little trickier.

[Vovk_Z]

It's math and phisics.

[rstofer]

At some level, electronics is just applied math.  Yes, the math can get hairy!

However, most hobbyist projects are really just 'copy and paste' from information found on the Internet.  I don't see a lot of 'original art' being done in the hobbyist corner of the sandbox.  Apologies to those who do create original art...

There has never been  a better time to work with electronics.  Everything is on the Internet (in multiples), usually well explained and nearly math free.  Or at least 'math explained'...

As to math, Khan Academy is excellent, the EE program at Khan Academy is more focused, Digilent has a "Real Analog" program and there are plenty of tools for solving math problems.  Desmos.com for graphing, symbolab.com for solving - these are great tools.

On the desktop, MATLAB is excellent but the free work-alike, Octave, will do much the same thing.  Then there is LTspice for all the simulation work.  There are other tools like Mathematica, wxMaxima, Maple and others.

I play with FPGAs and uCs.  There isn't a lot of math in that arena.

[langwadt]

At some level, electronics is just applied math.  Yes, the math can get hairy!

However, most hobbyist projects are really just 'copy and paste' from information found on the Internet.  I don't see a lot of 'original art' being done in the hobbyist corner of the sandbox.  Apologies to those who do create original art...

aka, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult

[SL4P]

It also requires language skills !

* phisics ??

[anvoice]

Electronics is essentially a set of mathematical simplifications to physical phenomena. If you're mathematically inclined, it's not exactly challenging, but... there is a LOT to learn.

Many knowledgeable people develop a sort of intuition for the process that means they don't have to solve the Maxwell equations to understand more or less how the circuit works. I think it's similar to an expert chess player: they have an extensive library of possible board positions and outcomes, it's not that they actually calculate fifty moves into each game.

[vk6zgo]

Electronics is essentially a set of mathematical simplifications to physical phenomena. If you're mathematically inclined, it's not exactly challenging, but... there is a LOT to learn.

Many knowledgeable people develop a sort of intuition for the process that means they don't have to solve the Maxwell equations to understand more or less how the circuit works. I think it's similar to an expert chess player: they have an extensive library of possible board positions and outcomes, it's not that they actually calculate fifty moves into each game.

Yes, it is difficult, if you are someone who can visualise things like differentiation networks, or phase relationships, to explain them to someone who needs to have everything established using mathematics.

Knowing how capacitors & resistors work, differentiating & integrating networks are intuitive to me, but it took me half a morning and the back of a roll of discarded printer paper to establish beyond doubt that they worked, for a non-intuitive but "math savvy" person.

A real workout for my rusty mathematical knowledge!

[vk6zgo]

At some level, electronics is just applied math.  Yes, the math can get hairy!

However, most hobbyist projects are really just 'copy and paste' from information found on the Internet.  I don't see a lot of 'original art' being done in the hobbyist corner of the sandbox.  Apologies to those who do create original art...

aka, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult

Most commercially made stuff just reiterates some previous design, too.
Even EEs who might be expected to be original often just produce "parroted" versions of the manufacturer's application note for various devices.


Of course, it is sometimes worse if they don't
Back in the day, when the "simple switcher" devices first came out, Samsung used one in a small TV..

It was a disaster!---- noise & interference everywhere, the thing overheated, & so on.
Samsung used a solenoid inductor, whereas the device app note expressly warned against using other than a toroid.
Replacing the solenoid with a toroid tamed the supply.----it was still a crappy TV, but that's another story!

[Manul]

It is true that electronics can be described by math. Like most (probably all) things in the universe. If it can be described by math, it means it can be analyzed, understood and created by using math. But this does not mean that it is in all cases the only or the best mode of operating. After all, math is just a desriptive language and it is in my opinion purely artificial.

Concepts like "easy" and "hard" does not mean nothing until we introduce a human subject. And we want it or not, when it comes to humans, math is not the natural way we perceive. We are good with things like pattern recognition, and we are very efficient with that. I would say, that in the end of the day training your personal neural network is what makes it easier. The more processing you can offload to your neural powered core, the more it will be easy. Math is a great tool when applied for specific tasks, but math alone would be inefficiency of an epic scale. Which naturaly means hard.

[Etesla]

I think electronics or more like adult legos than anything else. You just have a bunch of pieces with their own respective functions, and you put them together any way you like. The math has it's place, but I personally think the math is over taught and not nearly as important as having intuition about how a signal flows through a circuit, or what parts are available to do the functions that you need done. I learned a lot more about making working circuits and 'electrical engineering' on my own through simulations, building, and messing up, than I did in a 4 year degree where the math was the primary focus.

[Electro Fan]

I'm sorry for such a weird first post... this place is rather intimidating so I wanted to break the ice...

Don’t let it be intimidating.  It’s a wonderful place filled with kind and helpful people, not to mention people with a lot of different backgrounds including some who have tremendous knowledge and experience with electronics, and others who are relatively new to electronics.

If you find that electronics is easy and that’s it’s just plumbing with math you can do a lot of teaching here.  If you find it difficult you can probably have a lot of fun learning here.  You might find it to be somewhere in the middle, and hopefully a long enjoyable journey.

What motivates your post? Maybe share some context or specifics. 

[Electro Detective]

I'll tell it if others won't   

it's a LOT bit of math, interest, curiosity, 

and lots of money from there to support the habit

so don't give up plumbing just yet..

 

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EDIT: forgot my manners

@ Anthony! > Welcome to the forum 

[John B]

I think electronics or more like adult legos than anything else. You just have a bunch of pieces with their own respective functions, and you put them together any way you like. The math has it's place, but I personally think the math is over taught and not nearly as important as having intuition about how a signal flows through a circuit, or what parts are available to do the functions that you need done. I learned a lot more about making working circuits and 'electrical engineering' on my own through simulations, building, and messing up, than I did in a 4 year degree where the math was the primary focus.

Intuition just sounds like subconscious maths. You don't have to write maths explicitly to be forming mathematical relationships between quantities.