electricity

We recently began using this intriguing book ... more of a toy/lab set than a book.

I was shocked to find a mercury reed switch, which my son almost immediately broke by bending a wire lead. When it broke, out spilled the drop of toxic mercury.

Mercury is a highly toxic substance and should not be made available to children.

This is a great electronics lab. It kept my son of 8 engaged for many days and even taught me some new things. The experiments were just the right mix of challenging and rewarding.

Likewise with the previous reviewer I can assure anyone interested that this kit DOES NOT contain any mercury. All of the experiments were safe and the parts were well considered.

I don't think the first reviewer knows much about electronic components. This set does not have a mercury tilt switch in it. It has a magnetic reed switch. It contains two metal reeds that come together when a magnet is placed near it. I can see how it could be confused for a old mercury tilt switch but they don't even put those in home thermostats any more. There is no mercury in the set at all. It is a VERY good introduction to basic electronics. I have purchased a ton of these sets. I even collect vintage ones. The author put a lot of thought into the experiments and the components the set comes with can be used for other experiments. They are not tied down to a spring board like many other sets. A younger child should be supervised because many of the components are tiny but this set is about as safe as they get. One thing I like about it is that it deals with basic concepts of electricity very well and manages to make the experiments fun and interesting at the same time. It comes in a nice folding box to keep it all together and the components are well labeled. It contains a couple unusual components and I like that too. The magnetic reed switch is one of them. If you search on the Internet, you will find a child that built a very innovative reed switch motor that does not have brushes. He now runs an online business selling kits to build the motors. Also if you decide to buy this set, search on beakmans motor and build one of those with your child at the same time they are going through the experments. It is the worlds simplest motor and is amazing. It will tie in well with the magnetic concepts that this kit teaches.

The Inductor Handbook was a real disappointment. The information is a superficial overview of how to select inductors for basic applications. It might be suitable for a hobbyist or student but is not the caliber of information required by a modern technical professional. There is little information about the design of inductors and no information about computer modeling - crucial in today's environment. More useful information can be obtained from manufacturer's spec sheets and application notes.

The Inductor Handbook joins Mr. Kaiser's other handbooks to expand his library of core reference manuals. Each are outstanding on their own, but taken together, provide the electronics expert a ready reference and the teacher a core curriculum on each topic.

This is a very good book for selecting inductors for real world applications. Highly recommended.

I have often referenced this book for due to the nature of my graduate research. It is a good introduction to the finer points of semiconductor device modeling. (The stuff not really emphasized at the undergraduate level) However, this book is lacking with respect to many modern device structures and issues. (e. g. power transistors, HEMT's, III-V compound information) I still recommend it as reference material.

Though 20 years old, or "lacking modern ... issues" as the previous reviewer said, this book presents the fundamental material of semiconductor device modeling in a logical and organized way. Though recent developments are not covered in this book, the fundamentals of how to discretize a PDE (i.e., poisson eqn, continuity eqs, etc) using finite difference methods, etc., don't change, and this book is a good starter for learning that. If you want to understand the concepts behind device simulators like DESSIS, MEDICI, PISCES, etc., this is a good place to start.

I'd give it 5 stars if it was written in the later 90's, and therefore had up to date info on mobility and recombination models, etc, and more on the hydrodynamic formulations.

The heading is the quote from a review of the homework assignments given by professor Wing.
There is no publication date on the Amazon website. But I was in Omar Wing's "Circuits" class at Columbia(1978), and it was not well liked at all. His lectures was in heavily accented English, his voice was too soft, and he tends to scribble on the board off the top of his head, compared to professor Wing's better prepared colleagues.
As for the textbook, it is true that there are interesting and varied applications in the problem sets, but they usually hinge around a clever MATH teaser! So, the students who "got the game being played" did well. Those who are earnest and studious are left completely puzzled, thinking that this is what circuits analysis is all about!
Typical problem from his class exams and doctoral qualifying exams - "if you have a certain mesh of resistors, spreading out to infinity, what is the voltage on the N-1th resistor?"
The book is indeed good for "interesting problems", but as a book to learn from, (as I have found out from the 25 years since I graduated)there are much better books out there.

This book is a elegant an interesting exposition of the circuits theory. The author take the electrical circuits as abstract mathematical entity and develop his explication as a "formal system". A very different way to show and to teach circuit theory. Despite of its abstract aproach, this book have a lot of explications and examples that connect the "real world to the abstract world". The mathematical aproach of this book naturally point to get a computational concept of a circuit . This is reached more than a simple exposition of a numerical methods aplied to the study of its behavior. Also, this book is well organaized and is easy to understand, many of the proposed problems at the end of each chapter are good, interestings and well explained (Almost all problems introduce the student to a new application of the circuits theory or show interesting behaviors of particular layouts). In my opinion is a excellent textbook to any pregrade or graduaded student of electrical, electronical an computer engeneering that need or want to get a formal kwnolege of circuits theory .

Glorifying and corny. Unconditional praise of Edison achievements. Though the authors are clearly well-read, too many facts are ignored in the account of the circumnstances that lead Edison to the accumulation of patents. Lacks any critic view and end up creating an image of an "american hero" that is as ridiculous as untruth. I quote, just as an example, "In fact, if it were not for Edison's peculiar mentality, that refuses to recognize anything as impossible until indubitably demonstrated to be so, the production of motion pictures would certainly have been delayed for years, if not for all time."
Anyone seriously interested on the subject of the birht of cinema would recognize this as total nonsense or shameless manipulation of facts.
A book to avoid by anyone interested in having a truthfull and independent view on history.

The invention of the first light bulb inaugurated a new age for man: Electricity. Just as Edison had to create the tools to make the first bulb, he had to create the industry to use it. He did, and in doing so he assembled the first research laboratory and gathered around him a collection of great minds -- a rich assortment of men with varying talents.

The book is very descriptive in the area of theory but less so in the area of fully worked problems in use as a classroom textbook. The organization of the book material from one topic to another could be better.

The second edition of the book is about the same as the first exept for the introduction of a website about the book and a cd-rom with slides and sample programs for electronics.

This book covers most of the standard topics in a third year university course in electronic circuits.

It is accurate, but rather unimaginative. It does not do enough to describe the context in which circuits arise, nor to describe the design process. It also fails to tell the reader what comes next: that is, where is all this going, what is our next course, and so forth.

Its strong point is a lot of problems that, if worked, should provide a good background for the student.

A detailed book. Covers a lot on MOS technology and explained how transistors are used in digital electronics. Some good examples too! This book covers those important elements which are left out by introductory or standard books on electronics.

Kind of odd. The story of a storm in New England and how it affected people who were without power. Accounts of the storm are interspersed with hsitorical-fiction vignettes about how the areas was settled. The different parts of the story were not woven together well enough.

Here is what I emailed to the author:

"Just finished reading it. Thank you, excellent book.

On the next printing, please remove the attack on consumerism in the guise of a once in a 250 year storm as justification. A little absurd.

Also: how about a section on why the towers for the power transmission cables failed. Why the engineering specs were not more robust.

And, a section on what happened to house hold plumbing with arctic temperatures and no heat.

Thank you."

I didn't receive a response.

For the most part, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I heard Mr. Farina being interviewed recently on public radio and the subject of his book sounded interesting. Although I do not normally like a mix of fictional but fact-based historical narrative with a personal (I was there) account of events, it moves this story along. Mr. Farina does an excellent job of making you think about all those electronic luxuries that we take for granted. Where the power comes from. How is it transmitted. What this place was like before electricity. Who was here before electricity. And so on. Having experienced a natural disaster when Hurricane Hugo struck South Carolina in 1989 and being without electricity for 10 days, I can appreciate much of what Mr. Farina, his family, neighbors and residents of Potsdam, NY experienced during the ice storm of 1998. Fortunately, brutal cold was not a factor for me. I found myself looking for a map to ponder the St. Lawrence River area, especially where Louisville Landing once existed. The chapters move along, although I found the last chapter a little bit too academic in its post-ice storm analysis but Mr. Farina is a professor.

do you know in Italy 384$ are about three work's weeks?

I used this book five years ago when I was an undergraduate student. I still find it's a very good reference for my job.

I went through this book while I was in undergrad. I am a System Engineer. But even now for quick reference, I use this book.

The self help guide becomes virtually useless in Chapter 2, in which the sample circuits provided for evaluation have key components which are not supported by the software. Chapter 2 is supposed to teach the user how to utilize the circuit analysis tool called "Probe", however, since neither sample circuit is supported by the software, the chapter becomes an effort in futility. I would not recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning MicroSim Pspice.

Written as an academic lab manual, it works as well for a small business designer, as I am. It's both a tutorial and reference for PSpice ver 7.1 that's included, but is applicable also to PSpice ver8, especially if you contact the author's Web site for his excellent ver8 support materials. I'm looking forward to Herniter's next edition.

This book was the best book I have used for PSpice. Software was easy to install and examples were very easy to follow. Examples covered almost all topics I was interested in. If you need a recommendation on a good PSpice book this is it.

don't buy this boo

This book covers the basics of optical processes in semiconductors from an experimentalist perspective. Therefore the theory is a bit light, but all the concepts are there as well as many useful insights. An excellent introduction to the subject.

I want to look at this book