Customer Reviews

Electricity Demystified

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

 

 

This book is an excellent primer on the properties of electricity, the words used to describe it, how to work with it and compute the values of the descriptors. Using diagrams, formulas and worked examples, the reader is taken from the basics to the specifics of AC and DC electricity as well as the relationship between electricity and magnetism. A short set of questions is given at the end of each chapter and two major exams are included. Without question, this is the best beginning book on electricity that I have ever seen.

I desperately wanted a book from which to learn enough DC electricity to work my way around the simple complexity of solar panels.
The book was what I needed and more.
Gibelesco took the mind of this beginner and ran it thru with the abc's of DC. Even though I am 76, he made it easy to understand and memorize.
I have several of his other books, they are all written in the same straight foreward, shoot from the hip style.
Thank you so much for advertizing his material. I feel a loyalty to his work as I do to amazon books . . . enough to give you my credit card number
Thank you again
Dee Throckmorton.

This book does a pretty good job of explaining the concepts, and has helpful quizzes included to let the reader make sure he/she understands before moving on (each chapter has example questions with answers provided, and a quiz with the answers in an appendix in the back of the book). BUT- not all of the answers to the example questions are correct. Granted, nobody's perfect, but in a book such as this one there should be zero errors in the example questions. One instance is on p.62, where example problem 4-5 asks the reader to determine how much current a bank of batteries in parallel can provide. Even though only 1 page before the text had described how to determine this ("the sum of the branch currents"), the solution to the example problem adds up the voltages instead, and comes out with the wrong answer. There are a few other such cases in the book. If a reader does not have the background to be able to spot these errors, they're likely to be confused and discouraged as they try to sort things out. If a reader does have sufficient background, they're probably not going to be reading this book. I have to say the book suffers from lack of proper proofing prior to publication.

It's concise, well ordered, the diagrams were good, and it didn't bore me to read unlike another book on electricity which I am trying hard to read.

Electricity Demystified, 2005, by Stan Gibilisco has
many features going for it : Diagrams, Quizzes, 3 Tests
for each of three parts, a Final Exam and 2 Appendixes
one of these is for Answers and the other for Symbols used
in Schematic Diagrams.

A suggested list of Additional References is a positive point.

But MISSING : 1) a Glossary of Definitions and Concepts used
in the text and 2) an Assumption that everyone already masters
a certain basic vocabulary.

For example , right at the beginning on page 10, he goes to ask
the following question : What will happen to a flashlight system
if the switch is placed in PARALLEL with the light bulb as shown ?

He gives the Solution WITHOUT EXPLAINING the vocabulary and without
giving the reason; he only mentioned the consequences ( chemicals to
boil out of the battery, batteries can even explode, and circuit wires
can get so hot that they melt or start a fire ).

NOWHERE does S Gibilisco explain a parallel , nor what is exactly a
Short-circuit ? What is a Short out battery ? What is a direct short
circuit across the battery ?

The BEGINNER is left on his own to figure out a parallel, a short circuit.

A glossary would have helped together with a detailed explanation .

Apart from these 2 shortcomings ( no pun intended ) , it is a self-teaching
text.

I purchasd the book based on the other reviews, but it hasn't lived up to them so far.
I would not say this is a book for the complete novice as it introduces concepts without then explaining them, so the reader needs prior knowledge in order to understand them.
Also I'm only on page 11 and have found a contradiction in the text which the beginner would find confusing.
In paragraph one the book says a torch wll be fully lit if the potentiometer is set for it's lowest resistance, but then in paragraph 3 contradicts this by saying that when the potentiometer is at it's maximum reistance the torch will be fully lit.
It is only because I have a vague knowledge of what a resistor is that I could work out that paragraph 1 was correct and paragraph 3 incorrect.
This doesn't fill me with confidence about the remaining content of the book.
So for these reasons I would not recommend this book.

This is a good book if you have no experience with electricity. I like how it leaves you to figure out the problems/use critical thinking ( I guess). I would have liked a solutions to this book considering I didnt understand some problems. I would suggest to other readers.

This book contains a lot of good information in a very easy to understand way. Highly recommend this book.

electricity DeMYSTIiFied is a decent basic book explaining electricity. very simple explanations with tests after each chapter. it serves my purpose to clear up some basic principles of electricity.

I bought this to help my son learn more about simple circuits and really liked the way this book is written for the non technical person. It is a reference book in your family's library. I find my self going back to it from time to time. With the model railroad we have a lot of DC and AC circuits and it helped us set up some of our accessories and gang together our transformers for multi train control. This is a basic book but very well written and easy to understand.