electricity

I have used 4 different circuit analysis texts in the last five years. This text gives a clear concise explanation of the material. The best I have experienced to date. Circuit textbooks are usually riddled with errors, and difficult for the beginning student to understand the concepts. While this book does have its inconsistencies, It is the best I have seen to date.

This is the best book on linear circuit analysis. It teaches upto the advanced level. Writer has a wonderful style of presentating a topic. The book is well structured. There are a number of helpful solved examples. Every section ends at atleast one example. There are also practice questions at the end of each section(if possible). Author has put challenging problems at the end of each chapter. The book is written in a technical way.

Chapter 6 and 7 are full of knowledge.

I strongly recommend this book to those who are interested in this subject.

The reason of giving 4 stars is that if you are new to ciruit analysis then you may have some trouble understanding the fundamentals. Moreover, if you are weak in Calculus(esp. Differential calculus), you may find yourself under hot water. But as I have already taken a course on advanced calculus(the book does not require it - atleast you know a little about differential calculus), I like this book.

For the above reasons I suggest "Introductory Circuit Analysis" by Robert L. Boylestad. This is a very very nice work by Mr. Boylestad. After reading Boylestad's book one should read Hayt's for the sake of completeness.

Excellent publication for anyone interested in learning about how the wonderfull world of electronics got started. This publication goes through the who, how and why we have computers and electronic devices in our world today. I have used this publication as an "educational gift" for many of my customers. It will never go out of date!

I use femtosecond lasers in my graduate work, and I found this book an excellent source of review material in preparing for my oral examinations. It is not very detailed or mathematical, but has excellent phenomenonological discussions of a variety of laser properties and techniques. It is also handy because it is fairly recent. I found particularly useful the sections on amplification, semiconductor lasers, and ultrashort diagnostics.

This book is not a comprehensive guide to building and using an ultrashort pulse laser system because it lacks so much detail. However, the equations are explained very well, and the references seem fairly comprehensive.

The book is also completely missing a discussion of fiber laser and ultrashort pulse propogation in fibers. The section on nonlinear ultrashort optics is also far too brief.

THIS REVIEW IS FOR VOLUME 14 OF THE RECORDED AUDIO LECTURES ON TAPE - NOT THE "FEYNMAN LECTURES ON PHYSICS" BOOK AND NOT ANY OTHER AUDIO VOLUME DESPITE AMAZON'S PLACEMENT OF THIS REVIEW ON THE WRONG VOLUME PAGE. (the system also seems to miss-associate these reviews with the incorrect audio volumes.) THIS IS PART ONE OF TWO VOLUMES ON ELECTRICITY & MAGNETISM - VOLUME #15 IS PART TWO.

OK, that warning aside, the subject is Electrodynamics. The man is Feynman. Here's what you get:
Six hours of Feynman lecturing (in his characteristic idiosyncratic demeanor) to students at the California Institute of Technology during the early years of the 1960's. Yes folks, that's right: Six 1 hour lectures on six audio tapes covering the first six contiguous chapters from which volume two of the printed lectures was transcribed. The lectures also cover some serious mathematics (Differential & Vector Calculus). This is where owning a copy of the printed lectures comes in handy for following the lecture from his transcribed use of the massive University lecture hall chalk-boards. The only audio editing is from the publisher announcing the date, lecture title, and where each chapter subsection begins. It is interesting to hear the background noise of the students as they file in and out of the lecture hall and towards the end of each lecture. You also hear bells in the hallway signaling the end of the class or possibly the lunch break. The students enthusiastically demonstrate their appreciation of Professor Feynman's efforts by applauding him at the end of each lecture. Of course Professor Feynman makes use of the chalkboard which you wont have the advantage of seeing but you could keep a copy of the printed lectures on hand (separate purchase) to get whatever visuals you need from the transcribed illustrated diagrams which were published (I have done this and it's handy). Mostly I just listen to these tapes (I have a collection of over 72 taped lectures) on my one hour a day commute each day, over and over again. It's like I'm always in school with the great genius of Feynman every day!
This audio volume (#14) is Part 1 of 2. The next six contiguous lectures will be available in audio volume #15. By the way, I wrote the publisher (Perseus Books Group) and asked them when Part 2 would be available to which they promptly sent the helpful reply:
'Volumes 15 and 16 of the Audio Collection will be coming out this spring. Volume 15 (Feynman on Electricity and Magnetism, Part 2) contains sections on electrostatic energy, electricity in the atmosphere-including lightning and thunderstorms-magnetostatics, and the magnetic field. Volume 16 (Feynman on Electromagnetism) discusses the vector potential, laws of induction, and the Maxwell equations. According to our production schedule, both volumes should be available by April.'

Well anyhow, I thought that you'd like to see how these audio lectures correlate to the printed 'Lectures on Physics' by audiocassette to volume & chapter for each book:

Tape #1 is from the printed lectures Vol. II Chapter 1: ELECTROMAGNETISM (Sept. 27, 1962)
1.1Electrical forces
1.2Electric and Magnetic fields
1.3Characterizations of vector fields
1.4The laws of electromagnetism
1.5What are fields?
1.6Electromagnetism in science and technology

Tape #2 is from the printed lectures Vol. II Chapter 2: DIFFERENTIAL CALCULUS OF VECTOR FIELDS (Oct. 1, 1962)
2.1Understanding physics
2.2Scalar and vector fields - T and h
2.3Derivatives of fields - the gradient
2.4The operator del
2.5Operators with del
2.6The differential equation of heat flow
2.7Second derivatives of vector fields
2.8Pitfalls

Tape #3 is from the printed lectures Vol. II Chapter 3: VECTOR INTEGRAL CALCULUS (Oct. 4, 1962)
3.1Vector integrals; the line integral of del Y
3.2The flux of a vector field
3.3The flux from a cube; Gauss' theorem
3.4Heat conduction; the diffusion equation
3.5The circulation of a vector field
3.6The circulation around a square; Stokes's theorem
3.7Curl-free and divergence-free fields
3.8Summary

Tape #4 is from the printed lectures Vol. II Chapter 4: ELECTROSTATICS (Oct. 8, 1962)
4.1Statics
4.2Coulomb's law; superposition
4.3Electric potential
4.4E=-del f
4.5The flux of E
4.6Gauss' law; divergence of E
4.7Field of a sphere of charge
4.8Field lines; equipotential surfaces

Tape #5 is from the printed lectures Vol. II Chapter 5: APPLICATION OF GAUSS' LAW (Oct. 11, 1962)
5.1Electrostatics is Gauss' law plus...
5.2Equilibrium in an electrostatic field
5.3Equilibrium with conductors
5.4Stability of atoms
5.5The field of a line charge
5.6A sheet of charge; a spherical shell
5.7A sphere of charge; a spherical shell
5.8Is the field of a point charge exactly 1/r^2
5.9The fields of a conductor
5.10The field in a cavity of a conductor

Tape #6 is from the printed lectures Vol. II Chapter 6: THE ELECTRIC FIELD IN VARIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES (Oct. 15, 1962)
6.1Equations of the electrostatic potential
6.2The electric dipole
6.3Remarks on vector equations
6.4The dipole potential as a gradient
6.5The dipole approximation for an arbitrary distribution
6.6The fields of charged conductors
6.7The method of images
6.8A point charge near a conducting plate
6.9A point charge near a conducting sphere
6.10Condensers: parallel plates
6.11High-voltage breakdown

(...) check out my other Feynman reviews & "Listmania Lists". Tell me what you think.

Thanks & Enjoy!
IndiAndy

If you are interested in the many ways of delivering electroheat this book is well worth a place on your desk. It is based on courses on electroheat given in the engineering dept of Cambridge University UK where Metaxas is a Fellow of St John's College. Here he combines mathematical treatment of the principles of electroheat with descriptions and sketches of a wide variety of industrial applications. He graciously acknowledges his debt to the many colleagues who have devoted their careers to the subject and quotes sources both in the text then in a reference list covering five pages in section 9.11.
This book is rich in graphs, illustrations and diagrams of processes. These are all black and white, clear, concise and free from the kind of costly artistic glitz that often preempts substance.

Metaxas provides a searching analytical treatment of the modes of heat generation and distribution in various materials when subjected to electromagnetic fields. The materials can be conductors, insulators or anything in between. He demonstrates that one compact mathematics and physics toolbox can bring understanding and an ability to handle a diverse range of applications. This is what brings "Unified Approach" into the title.

In the section on properties of materials Metaxas begins " The prime purpose of utilizing electrical energy in the processes considered in this book is either to elevate the temperature to effect annealing, curing, sterilizing or melting, to supply the necessary energy for drying as in dielectric or infra-red heating techniques, to provide sufficient energy for welding or cutting materials or to promote plasmas for a number of important industrial applications."

He describes and gives values for the properties of materials relevant to the heating process. These include electrical and thermal conductivity, specific heat, permittivity, dielectric loss, their dependence on temperature.
He shows many worked examples and calculations of induction heating in metals and dielectric heating in non-metals.

There is a section on applicators for electromagnetic heating. This includes:
Clamps for connecting ac power directly onto a metal rod for ohmic ( I²R ) heating.
The three-phase immersed electrode set up for ohmic heating in an electrode boiler or molten glass tank.
Various shapes of copper coils for induction heating of metal, covering parts and continuous profile.
Magnetic yoke designs for transverse flux, improving electromagnetic coupling for thin strip.
Parallel plate arrangements for applying HF electric fields to lossy dielectric materials.
Clamping applicators for HF welding of PVC.
Microwave traveling wave applicator for sheet material.
Microwave horn applicator for heating material in a conveyer tunnel.

This same section covers power sources downstream of the 50 or 60Hz public
supply. This section concerns conversion and control, stopping short of automatic feedback control. A book on control that complements this one is waiting for an author.
The silicon controlled rectifier (SCR) is shown, first as a simple modulator of ac power, then as a controller of the rectifier providing the high-voltage dc supply to a magnetron, then as a rectifier/inverter circuit for delivering medium frequency power to induction heaters.
50 and 60Hz three-phase transformers in saturated-core mode are featured, connected as frequency triplers.
Thermionic tube and solid-state amplifying and switching devices are shown in various oscillator circuits.
For microwave power generation the magnetron is described in some detail, along with its high voltage dc supplies.
Chapter 5 covers the ionized state of a plasma; described by Metaxas as "a state of gaseous material which contains a fair number of ionized particles resulting from the application of an external energy source"....... "may be in the form of dc or ac voltages of frequencies up to the microwave region and beyond"
Three regions of the plasma's voltage/current curve are defined, with their relevance to industrial processing:
Normal glow - about 0.1 to some 50mA, being energy sources for the CO2 laser, plasma chemistry and surface treatments, e.g. etching, assisted chemical and physical vapor depositions, ion implantation, oxidation and sputtering.
Abnormal glow - about 0.5 to 50A; glow discharge carburising and nitriding for surface treatment such as case hardening of ferrous and other components.
Arc discharge - about 1 to 10000A; Energy source for the Nd:YAG and Ruby lasers; plasma chemistry; plasma arc for cutting, welding or spraying; plasma furnaces; arc furnaces for metal melting; arc welding.
A detailed treatment with diagrams and circuits follows, covering lasers, arcs and electron beams.
Chapter 6 covers heat pumps and energy recovery, infra-red heating, air knife technology, induction applications, electrochemical processes, UV curing and ovens and furnaces.

Chapter 7 deals with heat and mass transfer.
Chapter 8 describes the use of computers and numerical techniques in electroheat calculations and processing. Computer developments in this area emerge faster than new book editions come out so you might want to search for new work from this author.
Some 70 pages of industrial applications and case studies follow, then ten appendices on mathematical topics and material properties.
The author index covers six pages and the subject index covers sixteen.
For me the strength of this book is in the variety of industrially proven techniques revealed and explained for the benefit of the processor and process developer.

Fuel Cell Systems is an exellent compilation by sixteen authors who are experts in their fields. It covers not only the details of the electrochemistry and thermodynamics of fuel cells but also the economics and limitations of fuel cell sytems. It also has excellent chapters on fuel processing and details on each different type of fuel cell. There is a history of fuel cells at the beginning of the book and a section of marketing at the back so it covers all areas that one could be interested in. The editors made one chapter logically lead to the next and included a good index at the end. I would recommend this book to anyone who needs to understand the technical aspects of fuel cells and their applications. Since fuel cell technology is advancing very quickly and the book was printed in 1993 it does not include the very latest developments but the principles it explains are applicable to almost any system.

While difficult to read in places, the book addresses a definite need: piezoelectricity. Discussing a variety of topics related to analyzing piezoelectric materials, particularly with respect to their electric properties, the book explains issues only found in an abbreviated form in published papers.

In the blue light device the technology of manufacture GaN is very important. We can learn a lot in this book that the authors write many of property of GaN.

Zverev is the classic reference for continuous time filter design, especially lumped element LC ladder filters. The book is mostly tables, but the plots of filter behaviour for different designs--ripple, group delay, and so on, are easily worth the price. The discussion of how to synthesize a bandpass, bandpass, or bandstop filter from a lowpass prototype is very useful. They don't teach this stuff in school any more!