Ask HN: Books to read on electricity
Hi HN, I spend a lot of time playing with circuits, MCU's, etc, but still feel like I lack the most basic fundamentals on how electricity works in general. Can anyone recommend any books that wouldn't be unreadable for someone without an EE or physics degree? Some suggestions were posted here a few days ago: Thanks a lot for the link! That thread seems a bit more geared towards design and high level projects. To clarify, I've worked on a enough projects (hobby and professionally) to be able to get the job done (calculating resistance when needed etc), but want to gain a lower level understandings of electricity itself. E.g. alternating current/negative voltages still seems really odd to me, which tells me I'm lacking fundamental knowledge. Hopefully this clarifies what I'm asking for, and thanks again for the link! I think these 2 favorites of mine will help you: - Tony Kuphaldt's books: http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/textbook/ and related forum http://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/ - "Practical Electronics for Inventors" by Paul Scherz Both books start at explain-like-I'm-5 level and build up the narrative from there. The forum too is a great resource; lots of questions and good answers on fundamentals just like yours. I will check these out! Thanks a lot I really appreciate it. Some of the articles on Wikipedia are pretty good sources of fundamental knowledge. For example, here's their article on alternating current: I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Stan Gibilisco's Teach Yourself Electricity and Electronics. It got me into electronics as a curious teenager, and helped get me through the EE part of my undergrad degree. Edward Purcell, Electricity and Magnetism, it is a standard lower division undergraduate textbook. The only prerequisites are basic calculus and some mechanics.