Electric Circuits, Second Edition [Hardcover]

James Nilsson (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0201126958 | ISBN-13: 978-0201126952 | Publication Date: January 1, 1985 | Edition: 2nd

Foundation Title. Electric Circuits is the most widely used introductory circuits textbook of the past decade. The book has remained popular due to its success in implementing three themes throughout the text: (1) It builds an understanding of concepts based on information the student has previously learned; (2) The text helps stress the relationship between conceptual understanding and problem-solving approaches; (3) The authors provide numerous examples and problems that use realistic values and situations to give students a strong foundation of engineering practice.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

(1) It builds an understanding of concepts based on information the reader has previously learned; (2) The book helps stress the relationship between conceptual understanding and problem-solving approaches; (3) The authors' provide numerous examples and problems that use realistic values and situations, giving the reader a strong foundation of engineering practice.

FEATURES/BENEFITS

PSpice Supplement contains problems to teach how to construct PSpice source files—PSpice can be used to solve many of the exercises and problems found in the book. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Professor JAMES W. NILSSON taught at Iowa State University for 39 years. Since retiring from Iowa State, he has been a visiting professor at Notre Dame, California Polytechnic at San Luis Obispo, and the United States Air Force Academy. In 1962, he co-authored (with R.G. Brown) Introduction to Linear Systems Analysis (John Wiley & Sons). In 1968, he authored Introduction to Circuits, Instruments, and Electronics (Harcourt Brace and World).

Professor Nilsson received a Standard Oil Outstanding Teacher Award in 1968, the IEEE Undergraduate Teaching Award in 1992, and the McGraw-Hill Jacob Millman Award in 1995. In 1990, he was elected to the rank of Fellow in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

ProfessorSUSAN A. RIEDEL has been a member of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Marquette University since 1981. She also holds a clinical research appointment in the Department of Orthopaedics at the Medical College of Wisconsin and was a visiting professor in the Bioengineering Unit at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland, as a Fulbright Scholar during the 1989-90 academic year. She has received two awards for teaching excellence at Marquette, and was recognized for her research contributions with an award from the Chicago Unit of the Shriner's Hospitals.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 860 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley; 2nd edition (January 1, 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201126958
• ISBN-13: 978-0201126952
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.7 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (96 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,513,326 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars An example of what can go wrong with textbooks, June 17, 2003

By 

James Fett (Georgetown, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Electric Circuits, Revised Printing (Hardcover)

REA's problem solvers series starts out with a treatise on why they have written their books. Many of the problems they express with textbooks are evidenced in Electric Circuits by Nilsson, et al. The following problems, that REA states are evident in many textbooks, are evident with this one: "No systematic rules have been developed which students may follow up in a step-by-step manner. . ." the subject matter is written "by a professional who has insight. . .not shared by the students" and "the examples following a topic are too few in number and too simple to enable the student to get a thorough grasp of the principles involved."

While Electric Circuits does a presentable job at being clear, it tends to gloss over important nuances that are not described in the examples. With no answers to exercises available with the book (you can find them on the book's official website with some searching-but even those solutions have multiple errors) and no study guide showing step-by-step solutions to some of the problems, the student is left with trying to figure out the exercises without adequate examples or explanations. This reduces the textbook from being a resource to being a reference that sits in the student's book bag all semester only to be opened to find the assigned problems.

For an individual to read to get an extremely basic explanation of circuit analysis, or for an expert looking to refresh his or her memory, Electric Circuits may be adequate. For a student trying to learn the minutiae of circuit analysis, this book is woefully lacking.

68 of 78 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A Stinker!, January 19, 2003

By 

Quikwitt "sdb_8" (portland, or United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Electric Circuits, Revised Printing (Hardcover)

A stinker

The major frustration students mention when derogating
this text is the fact that solutions are not provided. While this is a legitimate complaint against the book there are much larger systemic problems with the text. Even though I had access to all the solutions I found this book to be fairly pathetic.

First the book conceptually sloppy. Aesthetically its nicely laid out and I suspect the average rushed professor pursuing through it when searching for an appropriate text for their class will look at its superficial qualities (pretty pictures, major topics are appropriate ordered and highlighted) and think the book is suitable for their class. I assure you it's not suitable for most students. Secondly the book, which somehow and tragically got a foothold in universities, has enough critical mass and momentum to perpetuate its obsolete and sad existence despite many better contenders. This is a major problem in academia which is so sessile and scared of change that it takes a miracle to usurp an established text, no matter how poor that text actually is. I suppose this is because they are freightened that they will be looked down upon if they dont follow the same established pracitces as other universities they wish to measure up to. Probably the same reason they will hire bad professors from Harvard or Yale over better teachers from less famous schools. A self-perpatuating, group think cowardice that fails to serve their students.

Now the book is sloppy in the sense that concepts aren't developed or explained well, or at all, explanations are cloudy or lead back onto themselves. Worst of all The drill exercises and problems don't correlate well with the text. Most exercises seem to expect you to go one to two levels of creative and intuitive abstractions beyond what's stated in the text. This is not acceptable in a putatively introductory text. Despite the authors stated belief in the foreword, this is no way to teach beginning students who want to learn the basics and learn them clearly. This is totally inexcusable, naïve, and fundamentally wrongheaded.

As an example exercise 1.10 cannot be answered with the scant and unhelpful information provided.

Exercise 2.11 is truly a circuit divider problem but circuit dividers aren't introduced into later in the book. It seems the author expects you to figure out a circuit divider on your own -ya right.

This is just a preliminary taste of the sloppiness and wrong-headedness present in this tome. I have reviewed several of my textbooks all positively except for this mess.
This work is embarrassing for the authors and I would think with so many poor reviews they would work to correct some of these issues. But alas the last three editions of this book are next to identical with no changes between the editions except for rearranging the problems order in the back of the chapters and an obvious intent to generate new monies from poor students by reissuing the same tired material - classy move there.

Now I'm concerned the authors will blow off these poor ratings and just attribute them to bitter, underachieving students, but how can so many complaints be ignored? The author previous editions are almost identical to his latest mess so why doesn't he correct at least some of the issues repeatedly stated by students. One can only guess he doesn't care, is too lazy, or is in a state of denial.

Jim and Susan need to reconsider their errant ways. So many students cant all be wrong, you produced a stinker here that's sloppy and ill conceived. Please put substance in front of pretty layout and address the needs of so many frustrated students. Please!

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Lacking, July 21, 2004

By 

M. D McClure (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Electric Circuits, Revised Printing (Hardcover)

This textbook is missing so many of the key ingredients that make a good textbook -- I am still amazed at the large amount of instructors that continue to use this inefficient and lacking text as their main instruction manual.

Using this in a circuits course probably will not help you and will make the subject more confusing most likely. If you have a poor instructor as well, consider yourself lost for the class. Get another text. The examples in here are so simple but then the homework problems make these conceptual leaps that prove quite challenging for students -- even engineering students.

This book needs quite a bit of improvement before I would use it as my main circuits text.