Talk:Electronics/Expanded Edition
Add topicThis is the second part of the Electronics book. It deals with topics that are related to Electronics but don't quite fit into an Electronics book. As this is the second part editors can stop showing restraint towards math. Long live Greek.
A lot of the physics is covered in the physics textbooks.. Eh, I don't really know.
It is true that these subjects are covered elsewhere, but this part of the book talks about them in terms of Electricity and Magnetism. A good example is Optics. Normally when people talk about Optics they talk about visible light. My question is how optics works throughout the entire electromagnetic spectrum. For instance at higher frequencies light will destroy mirrors rather than being reflected by it. (At higher POWERS - at higher frequencies it may not be reflected particularly efficiently, or perhaps not even reach the mirror).
- Yes, at high enough power, visible light will heat up and melt a mirror.
- But also, at high enough frequencies (X rays), a single photon carries enough energy to knock an electron completely out of a mirror, or break the bond between one atom and the next.
- Either one will destroy a mirror.
- --DavidCary 02:26, 27 September 2006 (UTC)
<Electronics normally just refers to circuitry containing non-linear elements; transistors, diodes, semiconductors, etc. This book appears to covering a much wider range: all of circuit theory, and most of classical electomagnetism.
Perhaps it would be better called 'Simple electrity and magentism', maybe covering circuit theory, electrostatics, electrochemistry, electronics, the EM spectrum etc up to undergrad level, stopping short of Maxwell's equations. Either that, or narrow the focus.>
See, I was hoping to make more of a practical book about electronics and about the subject. Now it seems this book has become practically everything but? Hoped to cover things like design and understanding of electrical circuits and systems, etc. Your thoughts?
<Narrow the focus. There's a proposed physics with calculus that can cover the wider shores of EM. For this book, just stick to circuits; without much maths in the first half, with maths in the expanded section: resistance, capacitance, inductance, batteries and electrolysis, generators and motors, and semiconductors. Don't explain how semiconductors work, or details about magnetism; stick to what's need for studying circuits. Possibly a final chapter saying, without maths, 'This is how circuits fit into EM and beyond. Now go and read these other books'>
I agree with person. If we concentrate more on the field of ELECTRONICS and less on the field of ELECTRICITY, we should fare well with a good textbook. If a reader can design a radio transmitter or digital circuit by the end of the book, we can give our selves a pat on the back. However, learning how electron spin and the function of n-doped semiconductor materials only gets you so far.
<More focused list of chapters below, based on list for basic edition. Can always subdivide chapters later.>
Quote "Semiconductor are always made of silicon"
- No semiconductors can be made of Gallium Arsenide or any group 3 and group 5 compound.
Please Wikibooks:Be bold in updating pages and fix any errors you see, rather than commenting on them. Thank you. --DavidCary 02:26, 27 September 2006 (UTC)