An EE course without the all-nighters

Darren Ashby, who describes himself as a "techno geek with pointy hair," takes a common-sense approach to his subject in Electrical Engineering 101, where he imparts the basics that "have been either left out of your education or forgotten over time." His coverage extends from Ohm's law through logic and programming and on to management.

I never took an introductory course in the EE department where I earned my undergraduate degree. To my best recollection, my 100-level classes included introductions to electricity, logic, programming, and differential equations in the physics, philosophy, computer science, and math departments, respectively. My first EE classes involved loop and node equations, phasor descriptions of complex impedances, and deMorgan's theorem.

I see a lot of value in Ashby's treating these introductory topics from a consistent perspective—except for the differential equations, which he omits. I also welcome his intuitive approach to the subject. Intuition was frowned upon in my education, but I believe common-sense analogies are invaluable in learning a complex topic.

Ashby takes a very practical approach, including a chapter on using tools, and he doesn't leave off on how to use soldering irons. He encourages the strenuous use of people as well—especially of field-applications engineers, which I didn't know existed until I became one upon graduation.

He is weakest with theoretical concepts. For example, his description of Thevenin's theorem (any two-port network can be represented by a voltage source in series with an impedance) is at once overly complicated and incomplete. He goes on about shorting voltage sources to zero (a necessary but not sufficient step in developing Thevenin equivalency) and presents a two-port circuit that he claims can be converted to a Thevenin equivalent. Of course it can, but he never bothers to show the result. (The details are left to the student!) To his benefit, he does describe how to use his Thevenin approach to rapidly evaluate a time constant.

So, don't look for strong theoretical underpinnings in this book. Ashby would have been well advised to leave the theory completely out and concentrate on the intuitive, common-sensical techniques that he presents quite well. (Disclosure: The book's publisher is owned by Test & Measurement World's parent company.)