My review of The Art of Electronics, 3rd edition

[tggzzz]

As a confirmed mathophobe, I can't believe I'm saying this, but my big complaint with the 2nd edition was not enough math and formulas. I probably can't afford the 3rd, but does it do a better job with the math behind the circuits?

The book is about the lore of circuits rather than the law of circuits.

The mathematics laws are relatively easy to find in many sources, but typically they don't describe the practical limits of circuits nor the relative merits of different circuits. OTOH, TAoE is invaluable because it concentrates on the folklore of which components and circuits work well and reliably; in effect it reduces the "search space" when you are trying to design a circuit.

Hence I wouldn't buy TAoE for the maths.

FWIW, I bought the first edition, skipped the second, and have bought the third.

[JacquesBBB]

As a confirmed mathophobe, I can't believe I'm saying this, but my big complaint with the 2nd edition was not enough math and formulas. I probably can't afford the 3rd, but does it do a better job with the math behind the circuits?

Why do you need more math than what is in TAoE ?
What is interesting in  this book is the know-how that you do not find in other books.

Very often, electronics College books are plagued with  lots of mathematical technicalities  which only
purpose  is to be able to select students  with a very technical  problem that
has little to do with their practical ability to  design a circuit.

Dont misunderstand me,  I am quite knowledgeable in math, but  do not want mathematical
details to hide the physics of a problem.

[emax]

Though this thread is a bit old, I'd like to express my appreciation for this book.

I more or less stumbled over it by chance when I was browsing the web for some good books as an attempt to get a bit further in electronics. As being a software-engineer my background is more digital. Unfortunately I am a bit agnostic if it comes to analog stuff.

So I first bought a few books written in my native language. They are very much like many things are in Germany: precise and quite profound - but bone-dry and free of any humor. It's a hard piece of work to read and to understand them, at least the 'usual' books like Tietze/Schenk/Gamm et.al.

This does by no means mean that they are bad. But (for me) it's just not fun to read them.

With that experience I was always a bit reluctant to buy a book about electronics which was written in english. My assumption was that a complicated matter which is even difficult to understand in german can never be easier to understand when written in english.

But finally, I gave TAoE a try. And now I am so happy I did.

To make electronic-books comparable (at least a little bit), my standard "test"-reading is about tansistors since this gives me an impression of how good I can grasp the style of the particular book. And TAoE was a pleasure to read. Actually, it was really fun. I would not have expected this.

I have owned this book for a little over two weeks now. And whatever I looked up so far was explained very well & vivid. In some cases, when I overdid  a bit with a topic (due to my lack of skills), it still was encouraging to read ahead and to put the "missing links" on the stack to look them up later.

A great experience, thank you so much!

[rstofer]

I thought TAoE had a goal of reducing the math.  Not to worry, there are plenty of books filled with math.  Pick up any text on Field Theory (Maxwell's Equations) and that should keep you going for a bit.  just 4 little equations all on a par with Einstein's Equations.  They may appear simple but we're still trying to understand them.

This should get you started:

https://www.alibris.com/Field-Theory-Concepts-Electromagnetic-Fields-Maxwells-Equations-Grad-Curl-DIV-Etc-Finite-Element-Method-Finite-Difference-Method-Charge-Simulation-Method-Monte-Carlo-Method-Adolf-J-Schwab/book/2299224

Control Systems is another area for math majors.  You will have Laplace Transforms in your nightmares.

Then there is Signal Processing - a course designed specifically for math majors.  Plenty of sin(wt), series expansions and Heaviside Step Functions.  Lots of math in this course.  In fact, it is ALL math.

Since EEs make a boatload of money and math majors maybe not so much, I have always wondered why math majors don't redeclare their major.  EE is really ALL applied math.

[rstofer]

Dont misunderstand me,  I am quite knowledgeable in math, but  do not want mathematical
details to hide the physics of a problem.

Nor should 'rules of thumb' become an engineering 'best practice'.  Shown or not, underlying all of the folklore is a ton of math that somebody worked out.  It may be glossed over but math is still what makes electronics work.

I only wish I was better at math.  I struggled more than excelled - it was an uphill battle.

[tggzzz]

Nor should 'rules of thumb' become an engineering 'best practice'.  Shown or not, underlying all of the folklore is a ton of math that somebody worked out.  It may be glossed over but math is still what makes electronics work.

The maths also gives the limits of applicability of the rules of thumb.

Rule of thumb number 0 is always "Think, and use rules of thumb wisely".

https://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/all-aboard-/4424571/Rules-of-Thumb--0--Using-Rules-of-Thumb-Wisely

[iainwhite]

'Foundations of Analog and Digital Electronic Circuits' by Anant Agarwal and Jeffrey Lang is pretty Math-heavy if you are looking for that.
(These are the guys that teach the MIT 6.002 course that is part of their OpenCourseware program)

Edit: spelling

[cepwin]

I've been looking at this....I can get the hard copy for  $54 on amazon or the kindle edition for $80.   Thoughts?