Customer Reviews

Basic Engineering Circuit Analysis

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(16)

 

 

The book is quite okay concerning the explaining and teaching, and considering it's an introduction. (If you want diodes, transistors, etc search elsewhere! (Sedra/Smith?))

But the thing is: each of the fifteen chapters has about 70 exercises. And if you began learning this stuff, you know it: you'll always forget a term in the equations or switch a minus for a plus sign, etc.. The solutions are not on the book, but they do exist, and if your an instructor you may log in the site and ask for a copy.

If you're a student . . . it's actually even easier! Just get it on isoHunt or eMule and start working the problems.

Believe me, do half of each chapter's exercises and you'll breeze through your exam. Check or learn the correct answer on the Instructor's Manual.



P.S. - I really understand all the one-star ratings, but it's just because this is a subject where you need lots of practice, lots of exercises. And of course if you're trying to study and you're stuck on one exercise, you probably won't go further, and exasperate.. But go get the answers, and good work! You'll see the book will give you all the theory and explaining necessary.

One of the reviews on this page is obviously written by the publisher. The one thing I can't stand about a technical textbook is when graphs or schematics are on one page and the explination is 2 pages later. With this book I find myself spending more time flipping back and forth between the 2 than actually studying. This is just one thing about the book that makes it hard to understand. Oh and one more thing, the "Circuit Works" program which you pay for the use of when you buy the text book either doesn't exist or is being kept hidden purposely, none of my classmates or the instructor has been able to access it. I've emailed the publisher twice to no avail.

I've paid more for a few textbooks. But they were actually worth the price. They were well-written and had selected answers in the back. This book made me confused about concepts I was already familiar with from previous classes. I felt really sorry for the people who were learning the material in the first few chapters from this book. After that, material in later chapters that was new to me was a nightmare to learn. And I'm good at learning by reading.
I knew after reading chapter 2 that I would be writing a review for this. The class that uses this text is almost over, and I think I can give an accurate review now. There are several reasons why this book is getting terrible reviews. First, the text is hard to understand. It seems like it is written like a lab report where the audience already understands the concepts. Small details and reinforcement that almost all authors just seem to naturally add are missing. Whenever I get done reading a section, I feel like I missed some important detail that would bring the whole concept together. Second, the figures are more often than not on a different page than the text that refers to them. That gets very old, very fast. I would guess that I flipped pages on average six times per example problem.
Another reason that this is a terrible textbook is the homework problems at the end of each chapter. The example problems are usually trivial and short, so you get some confidence that the homework will be easy. Then you get assigned a few problems. And it takes you hours to do. Say the chapter examples show you how to make a cube out of eight marshmallows and toothpicks. Expect one of the homework problems to be: Design a working cold fusion reactor out of marshmallows and toothpicks. And there are no solutions in the back of the book like with every science-related textbook I've ever read. Oh, but you can buy a solutions manual. And that's terrible too. I have a copy. I didn't pay for it and I'm glad. The solutions manual has most of the homework problems with work shown. The problem is that a lot of them are not worked using the techniques shown in the chapter! If you wrote down the step-by-step solution from the manual, your instructor would know right away that you were using the solutions manual.
So, I'd like to beg the authors never to write another book ever again. I don't want to read a pamphlet written by these clowns. There is just too much wrong with their style to even salvage. This book has wasted thousands of man-hours and has probably driven away at least some talent from the field. If this text is required for a class that you need to take, email the instructor and ask why they are using such a poor book.

This is the book we're reading in my first EE class, and it sucks. Maybe if I had a great professor that actually taught and walked us through the practice problems it wouldn't be so frustrating, but he doesn't, and it makes trying to go through the book EXTREMELY difficult.

There are huge gaps in information that show up in assigned problems, which I understand can help reinforce the learning process, but there are books that do it effectively and then there's this piece of crap.

The authours of this steaming pile of cow waste leave out important details that can cost a student literally hours in trying to figure out a solution only to discover that the reason for the incorrect answer is because the book failed to mention ANYTHING that might be helpful.

I can't relate how many times I went online and actually looked up information in OTHER books that were 1000000 times better than this POS.

An example, you ask? On the section on combining independent current sources, it mentions (in about 2 sentences) that current sources should be combined when in parallel. That's fine and dandy, but what it doesn't tell you is that when you're doing ANY PROBLEM where current is in question, you've got to add any current sources BACK in to the answer, depending on where they appear in the circuit, or you'll get garbage as a result.

Is this common sense? Sure, I guess, if you've already taken the class and already understand circuit analysis. If you haven't and you don't, the authors apparently decided to leave you up s@#t creek without a paddle after robbing you blind.

If you're taking an EE class and see that this is the text, check out the professor before you take it, or you'll be sorry.

I really didn't like this book. I found it confusing and convoluted. That said, the only reason I took circuits is because I had to. I have no interest in circuits, but for some reason, it's a requirement for civils. There was a ton of text I didn't care to read through, the examples were almost always the very simplest version of a problem that was possible (leaving you to figure out any problems with some degree of difficulty), and I just hate the thing for its bulk.

If you're into electrical engineering, I'm sure this will be right up your alley, but for someone who couldn't care less that V=IR, this book was a complete headache to try to sift through for useful information.

The first few chapters of this book are horrible. I hated the textbook early on, but it gets much better later. I would always get stuck on some exercise and go to office hours and my professor would introduce some concept that's slightly new, but just new enough to make the problem hard if you don't know it. Looking back though, I think that most of the confusions people have early on can be solved by thinking "What would logically and thus physically happen here, and what LOGICAL steps should be made to get to an answer?" If your solution is logical and follows smoothly step by step without algebra errors, then its probably correct.

Just remember, the first 5 chapters are the worst. It gets really easy after that. The chapter on op-amp's introduction was just COMPLETELY impenetrable to me. Skip it. Just go to the "Problem-Solving Summary Steps" or whatever its called 4 pages later (not the accompanying book) and read those steps.

I think the most important concept that this book doesn't really stress is NODES. This was such a big point of confusion that I will address it on amazon. When you apply KCL, it doesn't just apply to one "junction." You can apply it to an entire node, or to multiple connected nodes, or whatever.

Once you get past the first 5ish chapters, you basically have a solid understanding of how to figure out various crucial circuit quantities, and its smooth sailing from there.

This book was used for Circuits I and II. The content was very disorganized and unhelpful. Even the tone was written to make the student feel dumb by throwing in phrases like "obviously, this should be like this....". You have to dig through the examples to find concepts that aren't even explained in the text. Terrible, awful book. Hopefully they will change this required text one day.

- No solutions for any problems. You can try to look for them on cramster but they are usually incorrect.......if they have them.
- Written more like a report from a scientific journal than an educational textbook.
- Forces the reader to constantly flip pages by referring to figures that are in the section after or prior to the one being studied.
Please! DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK! THE GUYS WHO WROTE THIS DON'T DESERVE A CENT!

This book is not good for beginners. You should have some basic knowledge in circuit analysis. The author wrote this book with this idea that reader has some background in circuit analysis. I really didn't like this book. End of chapter problems does not come with answer, like other books.I bought this book because my instructor force us and he said our homework comes from this book.

I have never failed a class (3.8 GPA) until I took a intro circuits class that required this book. Teacher agreed that the entire line of books by Irwin is terrible. Side note: I build robots, so, I know circuits.