Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: The Art of Electronics by Paul Horowitz, Winfield Hill ISBN: 0521370957 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 1989 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $75.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.32
Rating: 5
Summary: 11 Year going and still viable, that says it all
Comment: From the early 1980s, I've read both the first and second editions over 3 times and the heuristics they use remain second to none, 11 year later. This is THE book of Electronics for non-engineers, if more math is needed, Numbers.
With technology moving at a logarithmic phase, its a tribute to their presentation that AoE continues to be sold without a recent update and their keen circuit sense shows that many of the technologies the focused on remain available today.
Since the second edition cheap computer circuit simulators, I use Electronics Workbench but many are available, can help clarify areas were H&H may leap and bound when discussing circuits [ explanations can still be found by cross references the book via the index.] Design software makes breadboarding less necessary for testing concepts. Choice of software depends on cost and the sophistication of your design.
This book is not for the casual tinkerer, kit assembler, or an extended version of '1001 electronic circuits.' It turns astute readers into circuit designers, not everyone is cut out for that field. Its been a while since I read Steve Ciarcia in Byte, thought of Heathkit, saw an issue of Radio or Popular Electronics, but DigiKey remains a key supplier, Radio Shack remains the 'quick fix' and H&H lives on.
I rarely have time to build circuits on custom PC boards these days, but AoE has given me a cognitive lifetime warranty on all devices I've opened that screwed tightly shut said " ... VOID IF REMOVED."
For the next edition, could authors PLEASE beg the publishers to print the book on acid free paper? My copy is terribly jaundiced.
Rating: 5
Summary: Good general reference, begs for another edition.
Comment: Encyclopedic in scope, this is a good reference for many electrical engineering topics, including aspects of both analog and digital design. It has a lot of pictures and examples, and often fills in the gaps of theory to tell how designs are typically made.
Even after getting an electrical engineering degree, I keep a copy of the Art of Electronics on my shelf for quick refreshers on long-forgotten (or never-learned) topics. There are usually comprehensive introductions to general topics followed by between a few paragraphs and a few pages on more specific topics and an example circuit or two.
I find that the text is very well balanced. There is usually just enough information to get the point across: no more, no less. For a thorough theoretical treatment of electronics design, you'll have to look elsewhere, but to just understand common topics, H&H is very good.
On another note, this book hasn't been updated since 1989, and the information on microcomputers and digital logic is reflective of that. This chapter begs for a new edition including FPGAs, VHDL, etc., which just didn't exist in 1989, so don't buy it thinking it will help you in implementing your college digital design project. You may want to buy it, though, when you're trying to figure out why your design that worked in simulation doesn't work in hardware (yes, even digital logic is built from analog components).
Rating: 3
Summary: NOT FOR EVERYONE
Comment: The unfortunate thing about this book is that some effort seems to have been made to market it as a teaching tool or textbook that would be useful to neophytes and rank beginners. It is anything but that. If you use this book to begin your study of electronics you will end up very frustrated indeed.
The writing has a strange schizophrenic quality to it. Portions of the writing are almost brilliant. For instance, in the very first chapter we find on Page 20: "...capacitors are devises that might be considered simply frequency-dependent resistors." An excellent way of thinking of capacitors! But in other places, like on Page 9, you find whoppers like "A voltage source 'likes' an open-circuit load and 'hates' a short-circuit load, for obvious reasons" (obvious??!!) and "A current source 'likes' a short-circuit load and 'hates' an open-circuit load." Other gems include circuits "looking into each other" as though they have eyes. Such anthropomorphic analogies may (actually, in fact, are) useful to seasoned electrical engineers or even intermediate EE students. Upon those less advanced, like hobbyists or beginning EE students, their only effect is to overwhelm the beginner with a sense of the "weirdness" of electronics and its inaccessibility.
In other words, H & H's effort to make electronics accessible will, for many, have just the opposite effect - to intimidate them from continuing their electronic journey. It is harrowing to think that some university physics and EE professors, having succumbed to the not inconsiderable hype about this book, are using it as an introductory text. Pity the poor students in those courses. This, notwithstanding what is written on Page vii of the Student Manual: "...during the summer we see [in an introductory course at Harvard on electronics] many high school students, and some of these do brilliantly."
In short: I can only give H & H a C minus in their effort at technical writing, and suggest that beginners and first-year students turn to Grob or to Schaum's Outlines (both excellent) for supplementary help.
Don't get me wrong. For the intermediate learner of electronics, this is not only a very helpful book but an incredibly useful one, especially as a reference. But any "beginner" or "high school student" who thrives on this book is not being completely honest about his background (he "forgot" to mention to the person or instructor to whom he introduced himself as a "beginner" the trivial fact that he already has an amateur radio license, or some such) or he is, shall we say, very very smart.
 |
Title: Practical Electronics for Inventors by Paul Scherz ISBN: 0070580782 Publisher: McGraw-Hill/TAB Electronics Pub. Date: 15 April, 2000 List Price(USD): $39.95 |
 |
Title: Troubleshooting Analog Circuits (The Edn Sries for Design Engineers) by Robert A. Pease ISBN: 0750694998 Publisher: Newnes Pub. Date: October, 1993 List Price(USD): $28.95 |
 |
Title: Teach Yourself Electricity and Electronics by Stan Gibilisco ISBN: 0071377301 Publisher: McGraw-Hill/TAB Electronics Pub. Date: 24 August, 2001 List Price(USD): $34.95 |
 |
Title: The Art and Science of Analog Circuit Design by Jim Williams ISBN: 0750670622 Publisher: Newnes Pub. Date: July, 1998 List Price(USD): $34.99 |
 |
Title: Rf Circuit Design by Christopher Bowick ISBN: 0750699469 Publisher: Newnes Pub. Date: March, 1997 List Price(USD): $29.99 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
