Basic Electricity: A Self-Teaching Guide (Wiley Self-Teaching Guides) [Paperback]

Charles Ryan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1986 | ISBN-10: 0471850853 | ISBN-13: 978-0471850854 | Edition: 2

Basic Electricity Second Edition A Self-Teaching Guide Ever Wonder… What makes a light bulb work? What overloads a fuse? Why your car needs a battery and an alternator? We all use electricity in our daily lives, yet most of us don’t know what it is or how it works. With Basic Electricity, Second Edition, you can teach yourself all about electricity—for everyday understanding or as a basis for further study. This easy-to-use guide takes you through the basics of electricity and familiarizes you with the workings of voltage, current, resistance, power, and other circuit values in direct-current and alternating-current electricity. The Second Edition has been extensively updated to include the latest in electrical technology. Through step-by-step problem-solving, you’ll gain a true understanding of the basic rules, laws, concepts and equations of electric circuits. Best of all, you’ll understand and appreciate the nature of electricity without ever having to determine its "invisible" identity. Self-tests at the end of each chapter have been fully revised…and a brand-new end-of-course exam is included so you can test your overall comprehension of basic electricity. For further study, the Second Edition’s cross-referenced list of standard texts on electricity has also been updated.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Basic Electricity Second Edition A Self-Teaching Guide Ever Wonder… What makes a light bulb work? What overloads a fuse? Why your car needs a battery and an alternator? We all use electricity in our daily lives, yet most of us don’t know what it is or how it works. With Basic Electricity, Second Edition, you can teach yourself all about electricity—for everyday understanding or as a basis for further study. This easy-to-use guide takes you through the basics of electricity and familiarizes you with the workings of voltage, current, resistance, power, and other circuit values in direct-current and alternating-current electricity. The Second Edition has been extensively updated to include the latest in electrical technology. Through step-by-step problem-solving, you’ll gain a true understanding of the basic rules, laws, concepts and equations of electric circuits. Best of all, you’ll understand and appreciate the nature of electricity without ever having to determine its "invisible" identity. Self-tests at the end of each chapter have been fully revised…and a brand-new end-of-course exam is included so you can test your overall comprehension of basic electricity. For further study, the Second Edition’s cross-referenced list of standard texts on electricity has also been updated.

About the Author

CHARLES W. RYAN is a technical writer for Itron, Inc., an electronics manufacturing firm in Spokane, WA. He is also the author of several nonfiction books.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: *Wiley Press; 2 edition (October 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471850853
• ISBN-13: 978-0471850854
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #76,967 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #29 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Physics > Electromagnetism > Electricity

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

67 of 69 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent: clear and well-organized introduction, October 6, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Basic Electricity: A Self-Teaching Guide (Wiley Self-Teaching Guides) (Paperback)

This is a VERY good introduction if you know absolutely nothing about electricity. The clarity of explanation, the organization of the material, and the self-test exercises help you to build a very solid knowledge of this important field. New material is introduced very gradually and smoothly.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A bit outdated, but good nevertheless., April 14, 2002

By 

Marsha SCHERZ (Santa Barbara, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Basic Electricity: A Self-Teaching Guide (Wiley Self-Teaching Guides) (Paperback)

This is a very good book for the true beginner. You learn the basics of resistance, power, capacitance and inductances, and some stuff on motors. If you like simple, easy to follow pictures, this is a good book. However, there is also something lacking. What's lacking is up-to-date information--an idea of how to do useful things with useful components, such as IC's, microcontrollers, etc. I think it's a great book for the basic concepts, but not very good for practical applications. The book was written some time ago, so you can expect this to be the case.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good review of the basics, June 12, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Basic Electricity: A Self-Teaching Guide (Wiley Self-Teaching Guides) (Paperback)

I found the book helpful in reviewing basic electricity as I've been out of school for a number of years. I wasn't impressed with the experiments and lab exercises presented in the book though; the author could have done a better job of presenting those. It would be rather difficult to actually do these lab exercises as presented, you'd probably need to look for other sources to really set up the lab exercises unless you already have a lot of electrical skill.