 "Excellent Circuit Design Reference" | 2009-10-30 |
| - Reviewed By User: APP7NLONT59JN |
I originally bought this book to learn electronics from it, but I discovered that it really isn't very good for self-study. Its explanations of circuit design are very terse, every explanation communicates large amounts of information in as few words as possible. Because of this, you almost have to meditate on this book to solve problems. While this is a great feature for a novice designer who understands a fair chunk of the basics, or for an academic type that can comprehend terse explanations quickly, it just isn't a good learning text.
That said, I've used this book to explore and learn about good circuit design concepts, and applying the theory. I find it akin to reading Martin Chemnitz on theology; tons of explanations and a goldmine of info, but it assumes you are at a high enough experience level to appreciate them. |
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 "The Bible of All Things Electronic" | 2009-09-27 |
| - Reviewed By User: A29FRM8X4XXW1D |
| This isn't really a textbook as much as a handbook. It's extremely well written and covers a wide range of topics. The book may sometimes show its age, but for the most part, the integration techniques discussed in this book and the basics of the circuits it covers are as relevant now as they've ever been. I highly recommend it for any one interested in electronics, especially EE / CompE undergrads. |
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 "Confusing to a beginner" | 2009-08-27 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1VZVR7448GN2G |
I have a copy of the first edition of this book. I bought it very cheaply from a second hand shop and it was fortunate of me to have done so.
1. This is not a beginner's book. If you are really interested in electronics, this book will make you despair and leave you believing you must be stupid because you are unable to grasp what the authors claim are obvious. It is not your fault really. It's the book's.
The authors try to dispense with the mathematics and the circuit theorems but electronics is not an intuitive subject and plenty of details and results get lost without the math.
For example: It is not intuitive that current will find the path of least resistance when there are so many paths to choose from. (How does the electron know?) The current knows where it will go, but you, gentle reader will need math to tell you this. (H&H also fails to tell you that though electrons carry the charges in a current, the current is moving in the other direction! You'll be rightly confused by this omission.)
Another: You will not learn from this book that when analyzing circuits with diodes and powered by alternating currents, you need to analyze two different circuits: one circuit for the situation when current is flowing through the diode and another circuit for when the diode is non-conducting. Unfortunately, determining the conditions under which a diode conducts and when it does not conduct requires math or the years of experience possessed by the authors.
Despite what H&H claim, you do need mathematics (college algebra and basic calculus) if you want to learn enough electronics to be able to design circuits. Dispensing with circuit theorems and characteristic equations will mean you will be able to assemble electronic kits and solder components with the help of a schematic, but you won't be able to do much designing yourself.
2. Many reviewers claim that this is an indispensable book in their shelf and score it with four or five stars. However, note that most of them have been doing electronics for years before they bought this book. Clearly, they didn't learn electronics from this book but elsewhere.
3. At least one reviewer who gave the book five stars did not really understand some of the material at all. There is a challenge problem in the book where the reader is given some physical properties of a conductive material (aluminum wire as I recall it) and then asked to compute by how much the temperature in the wire will increase if several thousand volts of electricity is sent through it.
The catch in the problem is that when you plug in the values they gave into the equation they have provided, you will compute something absurd. Your computation will show that it is impossible to send 30,000 volts of electricity down the wires from New Jersey to New York without vaporizing the wire in an instant. Since wires carry 30,000 volts of electricity from New York to New Jersey everyday without mishap, there is clearly something amiss in the computations. The authors ask the reader explain what happened.
The reviewer who gave the book five stars answered that you don't just send 30,000 volts of electricity down the wire but you must use multiple cables and power supplies. His answer is clearly wrong! Since the book does not provide answers to questions it poses he can be forgiven for thinking he has the right answer.
The correct answer to the trick problem is that plugging in the values given into the equation provided implies a situation where the wire is short-circuited to ground! We don't need an equation to tell us what will happen there. The energy output of the power station is expended on heating up the wire and it vaporizes instantly. (If you don't understand what I just said you better keep away from H&H.)
Obviously, the said reviewer did not learn much from the discussion about the voltage divider. He also failed to understand what a power supply's job is in a circuit. If a five-star reviewer did not take away much knowledge from his encounter with Horowitz and Hill, one must be dubious of claims that H&H delivers the goods as it should.
4. To keep the mathematics and the physics to a minimum, Horowitz and Hill had to resort to spoon feeding. In several instances, they will show the characteristics of a circuit without explaining all the required details of its operation. The reader is just supposed to believe that this is what will happen and to take their word for it. One such example is the diode rectifier circuit I mentioned above. This is fine if one loves being spoon fed information but very frustrating to a serious learner unable to verify the assertions.
There are reasons electrical and electronics engineering are some of the most math-heavy subjects out there. Maybe if you have solved so many circuit problems via Kirchoff's Laws you can understand many of the shortcuts the authors are talking about. But for a rank beginner? Probably not. You won't learn much from this book unless you have a proper textbook near you.
In summary, my recommendations are:
(a) Not to buy this book if you wish to understand electronics in detail. My recommendation is that you find yourself (from second-hand markets) textbooks used by students of electronics and electrical engineering.
(b) Not even buy this book as a reference. There are better and more encyclopedic reference books for practicing engineers out there with titles like Electronics and Electrical Engineers Reference Manual, Op Amp Reference Manual, etc. |
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| "The best desktop reference book available!" | 2009-08-08 |
| - Reviewed By User: AS1A0TA0RMGLL |
Well worth the cover price.
All the information that you never seem to be able to accurately remember.
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| "An advanced book" | 2009-01-31 |
| - Reviewed By ackrrh@hotmail.com |
| This book may be an excellent book for the electrical engineer, but not for the average "learn-it-on-your-own" person. It offers lots of questions in the text, but no answers. Without an instructor who actually cares about teaching, I would not recommend this book. |
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| "A Different Book on Technology" | 2009-01-30 |
| - Reviewed By User: A20BVZTQH9C4J3 |
A friend turned me on to this book. It is a very refreshing and easy to understand book on electronics technology and principles, and not the very dry descriptions as in many textbooks on the subject.
Sort of a "for dummies" type of writing style, but stepped up in technical content. A tip of the hat to Horowitz and Hill! |
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