Electrical Engineering 101 [by Darren Ashby] - X-Files

1 Newnes is an imprint of Elsevier30 Corporate Drive, Suite 400 Burlington, MA 01803, USAL inacre House, Jordan HillOxford OX2 8DP, UKCopyright 2009, Elsevier Inc. All rights part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Permissions may be sought directly from Elsevier s Science & Technology Rights Department in Oxford, UK: phone: (+44) 1865 843830, fax: (+44) 1865 853333, e-mail: You may also complete your request online via the Elsevier homepage ( ), by selecting Customer Support and then Obtaining Permissions.

2 Recognizing the importance of preserving what has been written, Elsevier prints its books on acid-free paper whenever of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataAshby, Darren . Electrical Engineering 101 : everything you should have learned in school .. but probably didn t / Darren Ashby. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 978-1-85617-506-7 (alk. paper)1. Electric Engineering . I. Title. 2009 dc222008045182 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication DataA catalogue record for this book is available from the British : 978-1-85617-506-7 For information on all Newnes publications visit our website at 09 10 11 12 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in iv10/21/2008 12:20:55 PM10/21/2008 12:20:55 PM THE FIRST WORD Wow, the success of the original edition of Electrical Engineering 101 has been amazing.

3 I have had fans from all over the world comment on it and how the book has helped them. The response has been all I ever hoped for so much so that I get a chance to add to it and make an even better version. Of course, these days you don t just get a second edition, you get a better edi-tion. This time through, you will get more insight into the topics (maybe a few new topics too), a hardcover with color diagrams, and hopefully a few more chuckles 1 that mostly only we nerdy types will understand.

4 If you want to know what this book is all about, here is my original preface: The intent of this book is to cover the basics that I believe have been either left out of your education or forgotten over time. Hopefully it will become one of those well-worn texts that you drop on the desk of the new guy when he asks you a question. There is something for every student, engineer, manager, and teacher in Electrical Engineering . My mantra is, It ain t all that hard! Years ago I had a counselor in college tell me proudly that they fl unked out over half the students who started the Engineering program.

5 Needing to stay on her good side, I didn t say much at the time. I always wondered, though. If you fail so many students, isn t that really a failure to teach the subject well? I say It ain t all that hard to emphasize that even a hick with bad grammar like me can understand the world of Electrical Engineering . This means you can too! I take a different stance than that counselor of years ago, asserting that everyone who wants to can understand this subject. I believe that way more than 50% of the people who read this book will get something out of it.

6 It would be nice to show the statistics to that counselor some day; she was encouraging me to drop out when she made her comment. So good luck, read on, and prove me right: It ain t all that hard! vii 1 Just a hint, most of the chuckles are in the footnotes, and if you like those, check out the glossary too! Preface Prefaceviii Well, that about says it all. If you do decide to give this book a chance, I want to say thank you, and I hope it brings you success in all you do! OVERVIEW For Engineers Granted, there are many good teachers out there and you might have gotten the basics, but time and too many status reports have dulled the fi nish on your basic knowledge set.

7 If you are like me, you have found a few really good books that you often pull off the shelf in a time of need. They usually have a well-written, easy-to-understand explanation of the particular topic you need to apply. I hope this will be one of those books for you. You might also be a fi sh out of water, an ME thrown into the world of electri-cal Engineering , and you would really like a basic understanding to work with the EEs around you. If you get a really good understanding of these principles, I guarantee you will surprise at least some of the sparkies (as I like to call them) with your intuitive insights into problems at hand.

8 For Students I don t mean to knock the collegiate educational system, but it seems to me that too often we can pass a class in school with the assimilate and regurgi-tate method. You know what I mean: Go to class, soak up all the things the teacher wants you to know, take the test, say the right things at the right time, and leave the class without an ounce of applicable knowledge. I think many students are forced into this mode when teachers do not take the time to lay the groundwork for the subject they are covering.

9 Students are so hard-pressed to simply keep up that they do not feel the light bulb go on over their heads or say, Aha, now I get it! The reality is, if you leave the class with a fundamental understanding of the topic and you know that topic by heart, you will be emi-nently more successful applying that basic knowledge than anything from the end of the syllabus for that class. For Managers The job of the Engineering manager 2 really should have more to it than is depicted by the pointy-haired boss you see in Dilbert cartoons.

10 One thing many 2 Suggested alternate title for this book from reader Travis Hayes: EE for Dummies and Those They Manage . I liked it, but I fi gured the pointy-haired types wouldn t get it. ixmanagers do not know about engineers is that they welcome truly insightful takes on whatever they might be working on. Please notice I said truly insight-ful ; you can t just spout off some acronym you heard in the lunchroom and expect engineers to pay attention. However, if you understand these basics, I am sure there will be times when you will be able to point your engineers in the right direction.