Newbie on Electricity

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Genesis8548

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Can anyone tell me if I should start studying on BASIC PRINCIPLES OF
ELECTRICITY or jump to VOLTAGE, CURRENT, POWER, ENERGY?

Or the voltage, current, power, and energy a part of the Basic
Principles of Electricity?

Need a reply ASAP...... I'm doing a self-study at home since I can't
go to school yet due to financial problems..... :cry:
 
Genesis8548 wrote:

Can anyone tell me if I should start studying on BASIC PRINCIPLES OF
ELECTRICITY or jump to VOLTAGE, CURRENT, POWER, ENERGY?

Or the voltage, current, power, and energy a part of the Basic
Principles of Electricity?

Need a reply ASAP...... I'm doing a self-study at home since I can't
go to school yet due to financial problems..... :cry:
Click to expand...
Begin with the principles!

I once had an Electrical Theory class with an instructor that had a few
misconceptions about basic principles. Nothing I could say would
convince him that a coil of wire *sitting still* next to a magnet would
NOT generate electricity.
 
"Genesis8548" <Genesis8548@aim-dot-com.no-spam.invalid> wrote in message
news:irOdndXRqrrEsSjfRVn_vg@giganews.com...
Can anyone tell me if I should start studying on BASIC PRINCIPLES OF
ELECTRICITY or jump to VOLTAGE, CURRENT, POWER, ENERGY?

Or the voltage, current, power, and energy a part of the Basic
Principles of Electricity?

Need a reply ASAP...... I'm doing a self-study at home since I can't
go to school yet due to financial problems..... :cry:
Click to expand...
Don't jump.
 
On 6/19/2005 4:27:07 AM, wrote:
Can anyone tell me if I should start studying on BASIC PRINCIPLES OF
ELECTRICITY or jump to VOLTAGE, CURRENT, POWER, ENERGY?

Or the voltage, current, power, and energy a part of the Basic
Principles of Electricity?

Need a reply ASAP...... I'm doing a self-study at home since I can't
go to school yet due to financial problems..... :cry:
Click to expand...
I would start with the basics, if you really are a newbie. Yes, voltage,
current, power and energy are basics, but there is, I'm sure, a more basic
level, such as explaining how electricity works, when and where it flows,
etc.

- NRen2k5
 
On Sun, 19 Jun 2005 03:27:05 -0500,
Genesis8548@aim-dot-com.no-spam.invalid (Genesis8548) wrote:

Can anyone tell me if I should start studying on BASIC PRINCIPLES OF
ELECTRICITY or jump to VOLTAGE, CURRENT, POWER, ENERGY?

Or the voltage, current, power, and energy a part of the Basic
Principles of Electricity?

Need a reply ASAP...... I'm doing a self-study at home since I can't
go to school yet due to financial problems..... :cry:
Click to expand...
Do a little physics first; that helps.

John
 
On Sun, 19 Jun 2005 03:27:05 -0500,
Genesis8548@aim-dot-com.no-spam.invalid (Genesis8548) wrote:

Can anyone tell me if I should start studying on BASIC PRINCIPLES OF
ELECTRICITY or jump to VOLTAGE, CURRENT, POWER, ENERGY?

Or the voltage, current, power, and energy a part of the Basic
Principles of Electricity?

Need a reply ASAP...... I'm doing a self-study at home since I can't
go to school yet due to financial problems..... :cry:
Click to expand...
The best way to start learning this stuff is to do it in a methodical,
organized way, not haphazardly finding material that you think will
help you learn. The best way to do this on the cheap is to go to a
local community college's book store and find a book on
electricity/electronics basics. This will only cost you the price of
the book. Some bookstores have used books available at a lower price.

Find a book with DC or with DC & AC in the title. It will likely have
the word Fundamentals in the title also. Look for a book of this
nature.

Browse through the book. Review its table of contents. A good basic
textbook will take you through the structure of the atom, the concepts
of force, work, energy, and power. It will talk about temperature and
heat, and basic electrical units. From there it will expand into
discussions of current, voltage, and resistance. Finally, it will
expand into general information/knowledge about basic circuits. If the
book covers AC as well as DC, many of the concepts I've mentioned will
be expanded upon as the book expands into AC. AC works in very similar
ways to DC but you need to understand DC first.

The strength of a GOOD basic textbook is that it presents all of the
material you will need in an order that makes logical sense. You will
learn what you need to know as it takes you from the most fundamental
concepts of physics and electricity into a real understanding of how
electricity and electric circuits work. This way you generally won't
encounter a new concept until the preceding material prepares you for
that concept--so you won't be unnecessarily discouraged by trying to
learn something that it beyond your skills.

I know it's summer so things at community college book stores might be
slow, and the shelves at the book stores might be somewhat depleted.
Research all the community colleges in your general area and visit all
of them. Also, community colleges vary from place to place, so one
might have a very strong electrical/electronics curriculum and another
might not. Try your best to judge the book store and the books that
you browse through.

And this final word: Most of the words and concepts that you learn in
this field of study will be new to you. Learning a new vocabulary, new
concepts, and applying them all at the same time can be a tough
challenge. Stay with it even if you get discouraged. If you get
stumped while you're doing your self-study, come to this newsgroup and
ask intelligent questions that show you're really trying to learn;
people here will jump at the chance to help you. I think you will one
day say to yourself, "Hey, I'm really beginning to understand this
stuff!" It will happen. Hang in there!

Gool luck.
 
As others stated - start at the beginning. Having taught electronics at
various levels in another life, I know that a lack of knowledge in the
foundations can cause lots of problems later.

Things to consider in your studies:

1. Even though you have financial difficulties, if you can lay your
hands on an old breadboard prototyping kit (such as the old HeathKit
systems) and a cheap multimeter so you can actually experiment will
help enormously.

2. A decent knowledge of mathematics will help enormously. Electrical
and electronic principles are physical processes, after all, and are
described mathematically :)

3. Try and get into the underlying physical principles - when you get
confused (we all did), you can go back to first principles if
necessary.

4. Once well into it, a nodding acquaintance with calculus will help a
great deal.

Good Luck!

Cheers

PeteS
 
Textbooks get the equations right, but many of them contain all sorts
of errors and misconceptions in their verbal descriptions. I go into
these errors in depth on:

billb electricity education articles
http://amasci.com/ele-edu.html

You can use the above articles as a sort of "backwards learning
experience;" learning about electricity by learning what electricity is
not.

((((((((((((((((((((((( ( ( (o) ) ) )))))))))))))))))))))))
William J. Beaty Research Engineer
beaty@chem.washington.edu UW Chem Dept, Bagley Hall RM74
billb@eskimo.com Box 351700, Seattle, WA 98195-1700
ph206-543-6195 http//staff.washington.edu/wbeaty/
 
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