The Art of Electronics
by Paul Horowitz, Winfield Hill
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Book Reviews of The Art of Electronics
Book Review: Beware of jargon!
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a great and exhaustive text on the topic of circuit design. However it fails at the stated goal in the first sentence of the preface:
"This volume is intended as an electronic circuit design textbook and reference book; it begins at a level suitable for those with no previous exposure to electronics and carries the reader through to a reasonable degree of proficiency in electronic circuit design." (emphasis on "no previous exposure")
I came into this book with a strong background in solid-state physics, electrostatics and electrodynamics. I could explain to you the difference between a pnp and an npn junction and apply Kirchoff's laws to a basic circuit. I could explain to you the covariant formulation of Maxwell's equations. However I was already struggling by the second chapter.
Here are some sample sentences from the first two chapters of the book that are provided with no real context (i.e. they are assumed to be self-explanatory). If the intended meaning of any of these sentences is not immediately obvious to you, you will probably need a companion to this text:
"A word on language. You frequently hear things like "the resistance looking into the voltage divider," or the "the output sees a load of so-and-so many ohms," as if circuits had eyes. It's OK (in fact, it's a rather good way to keep straight which resistance you're talking about) to say what part of the circuit is doing the "looking.""
"The first case is caused by a square wave somewhere in the circuit coupling capacitively to the signal line you're looking at; that might indicate a missing resistor termination on your signal line. If not, you must either reduce the source resistance of the signal line or find a way to reduce capacitive coupling from the offending square wave."
"Choose the base resistor conservatively to get plenty of excess base current, especially when driving lamps, because of the reduced beta at low V. This is also a good idea for high-speed switching because of capacitive effects and reduced beta at very high frequencies."
"At first glance this circuit may appear useless, until you realize that the input impedance is much larger than the output impedance, as will be demonstrated shortly. This means that the circuit requires less power from the signal source to drive a given load than would be the case if the signal source were to drive the load directly. Or a signal of some internal impedance can now drive a load of comparable or even lower impedance without loss of amplitude. In other words, an emitter follower has current gain, even though it has no voltage gain."
I should emphasize that these first two chapters are focused on "Basic" circuits. The second chapter even adds insult to injury by ending with a section called "Self-Explanatory Circuits" in which you are presented with diagrams of "good" and "bad" circuits which are -- of course -- self-explanatory.
Book Review: Good as a reference, abyssmal as a textbook
Summary: 2 Stars
I pity the students who have to actually learn elecronics from this textbook. The text "assumes you have no prior knowledge of electronics" while "trying to keep the math to a minimum". Although the theory behind this is to create an intuitive understanding of circuit behavior, in practice it fails abyssmally if you are a beginner with little to no understanding of electronics. Here is an overview of the first chapter:
-Omh's law is introduced in the second section, but the first example is not until the third section (voltage dividors). At this point the author expects you to be able to find the voltage and current in any part of any circuit, however complicated, consisting of batteries and resistors. Many readers at this point will not even understand that voltage is measured "across" two points whereas current is measured "through" two points.
-The next section (section 4 if you are keeping track) explains voltage and current sources. Although the author does not give any examples of current sources, he is gracious enough to mention that a battery is a voltage source (most readers can figure this out on their own since batteries are classified by their voltages).
-Section five (this is still the first chapter) is on Thevenin's theorem. A short list of formulas is followed by an example which is not worked out along with its resultant diagram. If you can understand Thevenin's theorem from this section then you really don't belong in an introductory electronics course. If you are like most students, your professor would likely have assigned problems of their own creation that you have no clue how to complete (did I mention that this textbook has almost no exercises to work?).
-The rest of the chapter deals with topics such as Zener diodes, signal waveforms, differentiator circuits, and rectifiers. This is far too advanced for the student who barely understands Kirchoff's Laws (which are given a few paragraphs on page 3).
The problem with this book is that the author cannot bring himself down to a level where neophytes can grasp what he is trying to explain. The lack of examples and exercises reminds the reader of a professor who simply likes to hear himself talk and doesn't care that his students are lost and confused. (This reminds me of another book, "Introduction to Electrodynamics" by Griffiths, which I despise for the same reason).
My electronics professor took one look at this book (which was required for my course) and has never picked it up again. He highly recommended "Circuits, Devices, and Systems" by Smith and Dorf.
I give this book two stars because, as a reference book for an experienced electrical engineer, it is filled with very good information, diagrams, and charts. As a textbook I could not dislike it more.
Book Review: NOT FOR EVERYONE
Summary: 3 Stars
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.
Book Review: NOT FOR EVERYONE
Summary: 3 Stars
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.
Book Review: Good book for first exposure to many topics...
Summary: 3 Stars
This book has numerous glowing reviews, so I will not repeat much about the book's strengths - its broad coverage, readable style, and extensive data tables. However, this is really an "electronics for scientists" type of book. I have a Ph.D in EE. I feel that more EE's should have and own such books, since they have a lot of detail that are not presented in EE texts. However, despite its encyclopedic size, this text is most suitable as a "first look" at an area in electronics and is not detailed enough in almost any area it covers if you are trying to do something new in that area. The authors make claims such as "Much of the favorite pedagogy of beginning textbooks is quite unnecessary and, in fact, is not used by practicing engineers...electronics...is basically a simple art, a combination of some basic laws, rules of thumb, and a large bag of tricks...the treatment is largely nonmathematical..." Perhaps if one is designing circuits for simpler science experiments or for some noncritical application in industry using discrete components, there is an element of truth to this. However, I do not know many EE's who can avoid a lot of mathematical analysis, particularly in designing ICs or high precision circuits, whether they do it by hand, MathCAD, or PSPICE. Although the data tables are a strength, they quickly become outdated. Perhaps it is good that equations are not emphasized because there are numerous typos - e.g. see Ex1.6c "...if you know the physics involved sigma = 6E12 W/K^4*cm^2..." - they lost the minus sign (6E-12) off the Stefan-Boltzmann constant and poor students who do not know the physics will be off by 24 orders of magnitude. The book is already too big and has many topics that are presented in too little detail - one example - this entire description of a magnetron - "The heart of radar and microwave ovens: a high power oscillator tube, full of little resonant cavities, and operated in a large magnetic field to make the electrons spiral around inside." Accurate? Yes - but what use is this abbreviated description to anyone? The authors state "We have avoided (load lines) because, well, it just isn't useful..." Again, this is true for some circuit design, but not in general, especially if working with new kinds or non-standard semiconductor devices. It is like saying that quantum mechanics is not useful to most physicists. Perhaps very few physicists do quantum mechanical calculations every day, but since it is the basis for much in the field, shouldn't one learn it, or at least not downgrade its importance?