Electronics > Beginners

It's not easy being a beginner........

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Noidzoid:
I was reading Electronics for Dummies last night and thought I would have a browse in the glossary.  Now I was willing to accept everything I read as correct and to soak up the lingo (as I know next to nothing about this subject at the moment), UNTIL I read the following which I KNOW to be false.



I find this concerning! When trying to learn the technicalities of a new subject being mislead in such a way can make you believe that you'll never get the hang of something and give up when for instance a formula you learned off by heart was incorrect thus never allowing you to achieve the correct answer.

In this instance, imagine telling an engineering student that a hexagon was "squarish". Ok, so now a hexagon has what? Four sides, four corners. I could maybe understand, but only just, if the shape being described was a parallelogram or a rhombus.

Up to this point if the book had stated that a transistor was batteryish I would have read on without knowledge of the nonsense I had been served, until I had learned better later on and maybe wasted valuable time.

What else am I expected to cross reference before I can know that the information I am reading is correct?

OK. Thanks. Rant over....

TheHolyHorse:
One way to make sure it's not just jibbirish is to do some research on what books to read. There are plenty of books that thousands have read, one of those books are less likely to contain false information. Personally I've never read an electronics book, I prefer just reading up some things on le internet and just wing it and see what happens. Failure is the best way to learn ;D

Gyro:
Well at least it has some corners, just a couple too many. It's when they become circular that you really need to worry! ;)

I understand your concern though - Electronics for Dummies isn't the most authoritative reference (any more than the rest of the Dummies series). It is a relatively accessible basic taster though. As you learn and want to explore specific areas in more detail then you will certainly want to cross reference information. Luckily the internet makes that very easy these days.

No, it isn't easy starting from scratch.

Noidzoid:

--- Quote from: TheHolyHorse on October 14, 2019, 07:51:38 pm ---One way to make sure it's not just jibbirish is to do some research on what books to read. There are plenty of books that thousands have read, one of those books are less likely to contain false information. Personally I've never read an electronics book, I prefer just reading up some things on le internet and just wing it and see what happens. Failure is the best way to learn ;D

--- End quote ---

That is what I do mostly these days. It's also how I thankfully ended up here, but I saw this book used and for £2.99 I thought it worth a go. To be fair, as an introduction to the subject it probably isn't that bad, I was just a shocked when I read the line in question.

Noidzoid:

--- Quote from: Gyro on October 14, 2019, 07:54:47 pm ---Well at least it has some corners, just a couple too many. It's when they become circular that you really need to worry! ;)

--- End quote ---

Ha! Like it. I was going to use the analogy of sine & square waves but remembered reading something about the way some generators base one on the other which is not a good thing (or is it) and thought I didn't need to make a real dummy of myself, not understanding fully at the time anyway. :-)

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