
Ask HN: What are some good resources to learn how electricity works? - farleykr
I&#x27;ve tried several times to understand the vocabulary and concepts of electricity - basic things like volts, amps, resistance - but I&#x27;m not having much success with self-led study.  Can anyone recommend any good videos, books, courses, etc.? Thank you.
======
basjacobs
I highly recommend the All About Circuits textbook:
[https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/textbook/](https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/textbook/)

It starts from the very basics and builds up to quite complex circuits and
their workings. It's an all-round great website, too.

~~~
etrautmann
The Art of Electronics is also fantastic

~~~
alexdowad
I respectfully disagree with this comment. I banged my head against The Art of
Electronics for years before discovering that the problem wasn't with me...
but rather, it was just a very poor book for a learner.

It may be a great book for those who already have some grounding in the topic.

~~~
lmilcin
Please, don't disparage a book because you personally did not find it useful.
I, personally, found it very useful and it was my most important learning
resources at the beginning.

Exactly as you said, because I have already had some exposure to physics and
to kind of modular systems (I am mathematician working as a developer) this
was perfect resource for me.

Different people with different backgrounds learn in different ways and from
different types of resources. It is wise to understand there is no single
resource that is going to be best for everybody.

~~~
nkrisc
> Exactly as you said, because I have already had some exposure to physics and
> to kind of modular systems (I am mathematician working as a developer) this
> was perfect resource for me.

So you're saying they're correct that it's not a good book for a learner
without some exposure to the fundamentals. But what's the disparagement you're
referring to?

~~~
lmilcin
It is important to differentiate between exposure to fundamentals of
_electronics_ and _physics_.

I believe if you have never been exposed to engineering or another discipline
that deals with complex systems (like designing software or mechanical
systems) you have to learn to build systems from smaller components. This is
where many beginners fail. Even though they can sort of understand what parts
do they can't put them together because they don't think in systems. In that
case you need something else than AoE.

On the other hand, if you have built complex things in another discipline you
may find yourself very at home with AoE with no previous exposure to
_electronics_. That's because you already know how to build systems from lego
bricks, now you just need to learn new kinds of bricks and rules to put them
together.

~~~
Animats
That's a good summary. The book was originally written for physics grad
students who needed to build instrumentation for their experiments. So
intended readers probably understand electromagnetic theory, but need to know
how you do things with available parts. That's where it's really useful. I own
copies of all three editions. Third Edition is on a shelf nearby.

A good place to start is to get one of the small Elenco electronics kits. The
ones with a solderless breadboard. That will get you the basics. With a
solderless breadboard, you can always buy and add more components. Much
hobbyist electronics is done on solderless breadboards, especially Arduino
stuff.

Once you understand E=IR and W=EI, you can size most components. Beyond that,
use LTSpice.

------
Kim_Bruning
The Minecraft mod Electrical Age is surprisingly useful to (literally play
around and) get a feel for things. It was originally designed to teach
electrical engineers once upon a time. Currently it's been a bit gamified
-sure-, but the core MNA solver is still there.

Still somewhat surprising to me, this kind of simulation actually does help.
It turns out that you actually do pick up a lot of intuitive feel that can
serve well in an industrial context. I guess no matter how much theory you
study on, it's still really insightful to just blow up some circuits. ;-)

Note that Electrical age currently works with older versions of minecraft
(1.7) , though a rewrite is in the works.

[https://electrical-age.net/](https://electrical-age.net/)

~~~
samstave
Problem: there is a difference of velocity of understanding between guided
experimentation vs study vs mentorship...

(Many fail and are put off to learning the subject whenthere is no person they
personally know to guide them through speed bumps)

~~~
p_l
That's where Electrical Age comes in, at least when it comes to power systems,
generation etc.

All the stuff you're learning is in a way directly useful, whereas try to get
a steam turbine IRL for learning at home...

------
HankB99
I'm on the opposite side of this question. I've offered to explain motorcycle
charging systems in terms anyone can understand. My thought is to use the
water flow analogy. Voltage => pressure. Current => flow volume. Resistance =>
constrictions in the system (or things where the water does work.) Flow at one
point in the system must match flow in other parts except for places where
water can accumulate (battery => pressure tank.)

My biggest issue is how to depict this in a format that I can share over Skype
without putting in 80 hours of work. I might go with a series of pencil
drawings and scan them in.

Are any of the suggested materials particularly suitable for this kind of
presentation? This is intended to be a 20 minute or so presentation so I'm
really just providing highlights. Points I want to get across include:

\- Resistance anywhere in the circuit will cause problems. (e.g. bad ground
connection.)

\- Bad starting can be the result of a insufficient battery charge.

\- Bad starting can be the result of high battery internal resistance.

\- Bad starting can be the result of high resistance in the circuit.

\- Operating with loads (e.g auxiliary lights and heated vest) that draw
slightly more power than the charging system delivers can work for hours until
the battery is discharged and the charging system no longer supports the
loads. (DAMHIK!)

Thanks!

edit:formatting

~~~
jschwartzi
Bad starting can also be a result of physical resistance in the engine,
especially as temperatures fall below the normal operating range. When engines
get cold enough they put enormous load on the starter motor which has to draw
more amperage to compensate.

I think it's very important to teach people that moving electric charges,
represented by current, result in magnetic forces, and that these magnetic
forces are what cause motors to turn. And an alternator or generator reverses
the relation by spinning a magnetic field to generate current, which is why it
charges a battery.

~~~
mtgp1000
>Bad starting can also be a result of physical resistance in the engine,
especially as temperatures fall below the normal operating range.

Is that true? Low temperatures directly affect the maximum output current of
the battery, but I don't think engine tolerances are such that the engine
starts to effectively seize up below freezing.

~~~
HankB99
Lubricants get thicker at lower temperatures.

------
patterns
I recommend having a look at "Practical Electronics for Inventors" by Paul
Scherz and Simon Monk. The book offers a very good introduction about the
basics of electricity with many helpful illustrations, written in a down-to-
earth style. In case you are interested in electronics, you will find that the
book covers many intermediate/advanced topics such as operational amplifiers
with lots of practical examples.

~~~
VBprogrammer
I came here to recommend the same book. It's not an easy book though to read
from cover to cover though. I found it useful to try to understand a completed
circuit design (say for a solar controller or something else I was interested
in) and when I ran into something I didn't understand I'd then open up that
book and read areas that were relevant.

~~~
patterns
Yes, I had the same experience and I use it in the same way. It's a great book
to have on your bookshelf as it covers a lot of topics and the chapters are,
iirc, fairly self-contained; but I never read it from cover to cover.

------
crks
If you want to begin with the basics then I highly recommend Khan Academy,
starting with "Electric charge, field, and potential" [0], then "Circuits"
[1], followed by "Electrical engineering" [2].

[0]: [https://www.khanacademy.org/science/physics/electric-
charge-...](https://www.khanacademy.org/science/physics/electric-charge-
electric-force-and-voltage)

[1]: [https://www.khanacademy.org/science/physics/circuits-
topic](https://www.khanacademy.org/science/physics/circuits-topic)

[2]: [https://www.khanacademy.org/science/electrical-
engineering](https://www.khanacademy.org/science/electrical-engineering)

------
steve_adams_86
I personally learned a lot from sparkfun's tutorials. The format is pretty
digestible, there are some good videos, and it links out to a few other good
resources as well.

[https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/where-do-i-
start/all](https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/where-do-i-start/all)

~~~
asd4
I second this. Hobby focused content might seem amateur but it has some
advantages in my mind.

Context: My biggest gripe with traditional education is lack of context for
why a principle is important or useful. Not a problem when you are focused on
a project.

Practicality: The practical aspects of theory are usually limited to core
principles and help you see through the fog of all the details.

Narrative: Bringing many topics together in a project narrative give a linear
path through the related principles which is less overwhelming.

[https://hackaday.com](https://hackaday.com) articles, in my experience, have
been a good jumping off point and often have solid links for better
understanding.

A weakness of this approach is that it ignores the mathematical techniques to
solving some of the problems. I doubt you will learn how to analyze circuits
with differential equations or phasor analysis on a hobby site. That said, I
rarely use these tools outside of an academic setting.

I'm sure someone will recommend The Art of Electronics. Its a great resource
once you have the basics under your belt, but hard to use as a learning tool
without prior knowledge. It touches on a lot of details by presenting a
circuit and summarizing key points about its operation.

Once you have a handle on the basics I highly recommend playing with some
circuits in a simulator. LTSpice is free and very high quality. There are
other online options too.

You can experiment on hardware relatively safely if you stay away from high
voltages and currents (avoid mains power and car batteries, always use circuit
protection such as fuses). You will be frustrated if you have no test
equipment though, a multimeter is a must-have.

------
lmilcin
First, it is important to distinguish between electricity and electronics.

The difference is like being physicist and mechanic. Do you want to be
physicist and understand electricity as a phenomena or do you want to be an
engineer and use it for something useful. Believe me, there is less overlap
than you think.

One good resource I have found is series of articles on
[http://amasci.com/ele-edu.html](http://amasci.com/ele-edu.html) which mixes a
little bit of both worlds.

Have fun!

~~~
p0llard
I'm not sure I completely agree with this: electronics refers specifically to
(essentially) anything concerning the control/emission of electrons (so
transistors, thermionic valves, etc.); it's not just "advanced electrical
engineering".

The divide you're talking about exists in both electrical and electronic
engineering, if they are to be considered separate disciplines: in electronic
engineering you have both the solid state physics required to understand
semiconductor devices, and the layers of abstraction used to design analogue
circuitry; in electrical engineering you have all the theory of
electromagnetism, and the layers of abstraction used to design electrical
machines.

The divide you're referring to is real, but it definitely isn't the
electrical/electronic divide.

~~~
lmilcin
Electronics is about building useful circuits. Do you really need to
understand what precisely happens within any of the parts? No, not really. I
can't imagine what happens to electrons in MOSFET nor do I care. For my
purpose it represents some transfer function which is what I use to build the
circuit. When I think about OpAmp, the physics is not one of things I am
thinking. My mental model of OpAmp has no physics in it and it is about
relation between input and output signals.

Think this way: do you need to understand how a complex IC part works? No, you
don't. You read the manual and learn that if you put something on particular
inputs you will get something on outputs. You leave designing the internals to
others. You take parts other people built and solder them to long pieces to
copper glued to PCBs.

That's really most of electronics.

You need to know a little bit of physics. You need to appreciate some
phenomena like losses, noises, you need to know what happens at high
frequencies, maybe you want to understand how heat is conducted away from your
parts, etc. You need to know couple extremely simple formulae and laws
(laughably simple to any physicist interested in the matter). Other than that
your parts function as tiny little lego bricks that are transfer functions to
affect how your circuit works.

~~~
PascLeRasc
EE degree here to back you up. I believe you're correct, electronics is to
electricity what software engineering is to CS. It's the practical application
with as little depth as you can get away with. For example there's some bits
of RF you'll learn when you look at 45 vs 90° PCB traces, but you don't need
finite-difference time domain equations to understand what's going on.

~~~
p0llard
> electronics is to electricity what software engineering is to CS

I would respectfully disagree with this assertion.

I'm pretty sure my colleagues who are designing novel FinFET transistors for
low noise applications are "doing electronics", and I'm also pretty certain
that they're considering the underlying semi-conductor physics in some pretty
serious depth; they're definitely not trying to work with "as little depth as
[they] can get away with".

Electronics as a discipline encompasses people working at many levels of
abstraction, including those working at a very low level. I think transistor
designers would be very amused (or perhaps offended?) if you were to claim
that they weren't doing "proper electronics" because they're actually thinking
about things in depth in a very analytic way.

~~~
PascLeRasc
Oh I wouldn't ever claim component design is anything but complex. I was just
trying to make a distinction between high-level fields and something like
embedded hardware integration where you can treat each component as a "black
box" of sorts and just care about I/O and operating characteristics. I don't
mean to diminish your colleagues' work, it sounds fascinating.

------
pjc50
Hmm. What level do you want to start from, and do you want to start from a
practical/experimentalist viewpoint or go straight to the mathematical models?

How comfortable are you with "lies for children" oversimplifications of things
that are extremely complicated but mostly irrelevant except in edge cases?
(This phrase sounds perjorative but isn't, most of the time you don't _need_
the complicated version and it actively impairs understanding what's going on.
But it can be the only way to properly answer some questions like "what is
electricity?")

I've occasionally considered writing my own, based on answering questions at
electronics stackexchange, e.g.
[https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/245610/is-
vo...](https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/245610/is-voltage-the-
speed-of-electrons/245621#245621) /
[https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/272694/how-d...](https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/272694/how-
did-scientists-deal-with-electronics-problems-before-kirchhoff-and-ohms-
la/272697#272697) ; probably I would target explaining how the electron is a
big source of "lies to children", and mostly an irrelevant distraction for
beginner/intermediate work.

If you want a large book, _The Art Of Electronics_ is the undisputed classic.

~~~
henrikeh
I just want to weigh in and say that fantastic as _The Art of Electronics_ is,
it is _not_ geared for learning about electricity and electric circuits. The
first 13-ish pages (3rd edition) deals with electricity and then quickly moves
on to signals, electronics and everything else needed to _develop_ electronic
systems.

~~~
joeberon
I think you're wrong, mainly because learning how to develop electronic
systems is, in my opinion (and also in the opinion of the authors of that
book), the best way to learn how electricity actually works.

~~~
henrikeh
There is no reason to be so absolute about it. I'm not saying it is a bad book
or that you should read "Field and Wave Electromagnetics" before you ever dare
touch a multimeter.

As an example of my reasoning. AoE and the Arduino starter kit cost roughly
the same in my country. They are of course not comparable, but I'd would
definitely recommend the latter to someone completely new to electronics,
exactly because the latter gives the tools for experimenting.

------
yesenadam
I got a lot from the articles on amasci.com by Bill Beaty. He's done a lot of
experimenting, reading, and thinking about this stuff and how to explain it.
And is a gifted communicator.

Articles on Electricity [http://amasci.com/ele-
edu.html](http://amasci.com/ele-edu.html)

Great essays on understanding electricity, current, voltage, capacitors,
transistors, batteries, static electricity etc etc, and popular
misconceptions.

~~~
divbzero
Bill’s “What Is Electricity?” essay [1] was discussed on HN two weeks ago [2].

[1]:
[http://amasci.com/miscon/whatis.html](http://amasci.com/miscon/whatis.html)

[2]:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23442181](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23442181)

------
aphextron
Walter Lewin's electromagnetism course from MIT [0]. These lectures completely
transformed my understanding of physics. He mixes practical demonstration with
a rigorous mathematical underpinning in a way that doesn't over simplify
things.

[0]
[https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyQSN7X0ro2314mKyUiOILa...](https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyQSN7X0ro2314mKyUiOILaOC2hk6Pc3j)

~~~
kenny87
+1 for Walter Lewin's explanations. I also can't say enough about the clarity
of explanations and examples in Feynman's Lectures [1] and the HyperPhysics
[2] tutorials.

[1]
[https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/II_toc.html](https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/II_toc.html)

[2] [http://hyperphysics.phy-
astr.gsu.edu/hbase/hframe.html](http://hyperphysics.phy-
astr.gsu.edu/hbase/hframe.html)

~~~
acqq
I would add also the whole Feynman's Vol I

[https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/I_toc.html](https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/I_toc.html)

I believe one can't appreciate the whole subject enough without knowing that
the electromagnetic forces are how the atoms "work", also producing
"chemistry" and everything we see.

To paraphrase Feynman, the electromagnetic forces also keep you from falling
down through the floor.

For the start:

"If, in some cataclysm, all of scientific knowledge were to be destroyed, and
only one sentence passed on to the next generations of creatures, what
statement would contain the most information in the fewest words? I believe it
is the atomic hypothesis (or the atomic fact, or whatever you wish to call it)
that all things are made of atoms—little particles that move around in
perpetual motion, attracting each other when they are a little distance apart,
but repelling upon being squeezed into one another. In that one sentence, you
will see, there is an enormous amount of information about the world, if just
a little imagination and thinking are applied."

------
morganvachon
I'm showing my age here, but I got my start with the series of books by
Forrest Mims that were available in Radio Shack stores since the 70s. They are
written to be understood by complete novices, and they have hand-drawn
circuits with everything explained.

[http://www.forrestmims.org/publications.html](http://www.forrestmims.org/publications.html)

~~~
beamatronic
Did anyone else have a "rest of the fucking owl" experience in the first few
pages of those books? It was like: Step 1. Here is a resistor. Now, Step 2
here is an AM radio circuit.

~~~
PascLeRasc
That's how I feel every time I try to learn how to use APIs. All the tutorials
are like "Here's what REST means" and then "Ok so here's JSON, but we're not
telling you what we typed in to get this or what to do with it".

------
gallamine
Hyperphysics presents a organized tree-like view of concepts, terminology and
examples. It's easy to click around and start building up a mental model of
how things relate: [http://hyperphysics.phy-
astr.gsu.edu/hbase/hframe.html](http://hyperphysics.phy-
astr.gsu.edu/hbase/hframe.html)

~~~
kiliantics
This page was a staple of mine during my physics degree, and also during my
PhD when I was teaching these concepts

------
ckmiller
There is a basic circuits course upcoming in HackadayU, which is targeted at
newbies and is pay-as-you-wish. [https://hackaday.com/2020/06/17/schools-in-
session-with-hack...](https://hackaday.com/2020/06/17/schools-in-session-with-
hackadayu/)

Just another resource that may help! You'll have no shortage of perspectives
and approaches from the links here.

------
projektfu
I remember in high school I had trouble getting it because I thought ohms law
had too many variables. Then I realized that a 5V supply will always be 5V in
normal operation and ohms law means the current varies.

All of the water analogies were unhelpful for me. I did better just doing the
math and seeing the result.

Someone else mentioned MITx. I did that and it was revolutionary. I also have
a pretty good book called Practical Electronics for Inventors.

~~~
samjohnson
> Then I realized that a 5V supply will always be 5V in normal operation and
> ohms law means the current varies.

This is a great observation. I've often thought that teaching Ohms law as
I=V/R would lead to less confusion. Similarly, in intro physics why is mass
acceleration introduced as f=ma? Wouldn't a=f/m have a clearer meaning?

~~~
thehappypm
Division is hard!

~~~
aphextron
It becomes infinitely more clear and simple to understand when you stop
thinking in terms of "A equals F divided by M" and think of it as "A equals
the ratio of F to M".

~~~
tarlinian
It also is infinitely more clear and simple to understand when you correctly
realize that "F equals M times A" instead. I assume this was just an
accidental transposition and you're not actually a crackpot. :)

~~~
aphextron
Doh!

------
soheilpro
Try ElectroBOOM channel on YouTube:
[https://www.youtube.com/user/msadaghd](https://www.youtube.com/user/msadaghd)

~~~
teh_klev
I'm genuinely amazed he's not been found burned to a crisp in his workspace.
The same goes for Photonic Induction, how he's not burned down his street, let
alone his house is a miracle:

[https://www.youtube.com/user/Photonvids/videos](https://www.youtube.com/user/Photonvids/videos)

~~~
gburdell3
That's how you know he actually knows what he's doing: he knows precisely how
to shock himself for comedic effect without causing any damage.

~~~
yreg
This, most of the dangerous mistakes are just gags.

IIRC Mehdi admitted on reddit that the one time he really screwed up and was
genuinely scared was when the Jacob's Ladder fell on him[0].

[0] - [https://youtu.be/lT3vGaOLWqE?t=467](https://youtu.be/lT3vGaOLWqE?t=467)

------
take_a_breath
= Geared a little more towards mechanical engineering, but Jeremy Fielding on
YouTube has helped me understand some of the concepts with examples rather
than textbooks. [https://m.youtube.com/channel/UC_SLthyNX_ivd-
dmsFgmJVg](https://m.youtube.com/channel/UC_SLthyNX_ivd-dmsFgmJVg)

= For straight up electric concepts, I’d look at the Georgia Institute of
Technology stuff on Coursera. “Introduction to Engineering Mechanics” and
“Linear Circuits 1” were helpful.

------
tyingq
The training program offered by the US Navy is quite good. Because they can
only have so many people on a ship, the Navy tries not to be as specialized as
the other services. So, electronic techs are expected to have especially good
foundational knowledge so they can work on a broad variety of equipment.

[https://www.fcctests.com/neets/Neets.htm](https://www.fcctests.com/neets/Neets.htm)

------
GlennS
I enjoyed MITx circuits and electronics.

They've moved everything around since I did it, but I think this is the one:
[https://courses.edx.org/courses/course-v1:MITx+6.002x_6x+1T2...](https://courses.edx.org/courses/course-v1:MITx+6.002x_6x+1T2015/course/)

------
observer4
Nobody seems to have mentioned a book that appeared here 19 days ago.

[Letters of a Radio-Engineer to His Son
(1922)](([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23358380)](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23358380\))).
It explains electricity without any technical jargon. Pretty nice first read.
His atomic model is outdated, but that doesn't seem to interfere with
anything. After reading the first initial letters, you might have a greater
motivation to dive into more complicated texts.

------
TheHideout
You might find the Navy Electricity and Electronics Training Series helpful:
[https://www.fcctests.com/neets/Neets.htm](https://www.fcctests.com/neets/Neets.htm)

------
granitepail
The Art of Electronics is perhaps the best textbook (in any subject) that I
have read. I’d highly recommend it. It’s exceedingly pragmatic and will
discuss a mix of physical underpinnings as well as applications.

------
abetusk
I found the book "Practical Electronics for Investors" by Paul Scherz [0] to
be one of the better ones.

My problem with learning electronics, and, to a lesser extent, electricity,
was that most of the guides gave an 'ad-hoc' approach, giving "rules of
thumb", recipes, etc. without really going into the reasons for it. They would
start off with an (imo) overly technical explanation of quantum effects, then
jump the more fundamental Ohm's law, etc., then jump into all the tips-n-
tricks of circuit design.

For me, the two major factors to learning electronics were getting enough math
sophistication that I could do calculus and linear algebra and being able to
program (microcontrollers). The calculus and linear algebra gives tools for
the 'passive' analysis and once you realize that most 'practical' electronics
nowadays are basically routing power and signal, being able to program is the
"meat" of it.

After understanding how to do passive steady-state circuit analysis, I briefly
looked at how to do non-passive simulation (transistors, etc.) just to see how
it was done (aka, learned how SPICE et. all do it).

Anyway, I found the "Practical Electronics for Inventors" book to be one of
the few books that was practical from the outset and actually went into the
theory, even if only briefly, without assuming I would get frightened by
complex numbers.

There's obviously a path that doesn't involve calculus, linear algebra and
programming, because people do it and have been doing it for many years, but
these were the tools that helped me understand.

I would also recommend not doing this in the abstract. Arduino's [1] are, in
my opinion, one of the better places to start. You can get an LED blinking
within 5 minutes of onboxing. Adafruit [2] has many tutorial but they're more
focused on using pre-built modules and I guess programming, to a lesser
extent, than underlying theory.

[0] [https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-
Fourt...](https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Fourth-
Scherz/dp/1259587541)

[1] [https://store.arduino.cc/usa/arduino-uno-
rev3](https://store.arduino.cc/usa/arduino-uno-rev3)

[2] [https://learn.adafruit.com/](https://learn.adafruit.com/)

------
MarcScott
I wrote this a long time ago, when I was a teacher, which might be a good
starting point.

[https://www.bournetoinvent.com/projects/7-SC-
Torch/pages/1_L...](https://www.bournetoinvent.com/projects/7-SC-
Torch/pages/1_Lesson.html)

(please excuse the crappy JS)

On another note, I would avoid the water in pipes analogy, as it fails pretty
quickly. Electricity is hard to understand because you can't see its effects
clearly, but at the end of the day it is caused by an electromagnetic field.
Other fields such as gravitational fields, we tend to have a much more
intuitive understanding of. Look for explanations that draw parallels between
gravitational fields and electromagnetic fields.

------
dannypgh
I would suggest things that use the hydraulics analogy, like this:
[https://ece.uwaterloo.ca/~dwharder/Analogy/](https://ece.uwaterloo.ca/~dwharder/Analogy/)

~~~
sunstone
I would probably recommend this. Thinking of electricity as analogous to water
flow under gravity can get you a long way. I do recommend studying the
mathematics of imaginary numbers (not hard, just takes a bit of time) since
this is used for AC circuits and this is the tool that makes that stuff make
sense.

When you get to active (transistors, diodes etc) devices don't spend much time
trying to figure out the physics of these things just use the equations and
keep it simple. Just as when you're cooking eggs in the morning it doesn't
help much to understand prospecting, mining and metallurgy to use the frying
pan.

------
compumike
I'm (early) in the process of writing Ultimate Electronics Book [1], which has
interactive simulations built in. It was discussed extensively here on HN 4
months ago [2].

Take a look and let me know what you think.

[1]
[https://ultimateelectronicsbook.com/](https://ultimateelectronicsbook.com/)

[2]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22315899](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22315899)

------
0culus
Along with a book (lots of good recommendations to choose from here), I
recommend getting yourself some basic tools for practical experimentation:
breadboard, multimeter (even a cheap Chinesium model will be fine for low
voltage DC work), an oscilloscope (entry level DSO models from Chinese OEMs
such as Siglent and Rigol can be had very affordably), a bench power supply
(Siglent and Rigol also offer these), and some components (Joe Knows kits that
are sold on Amazon are a great way to stock up on decent quality resistors,
capacitors, and semiconductors to help you get to building circuits).

If you get to wanting to experiment with faster circuits, you can ditch
breadboards and their parasitics for Manhattan style construction[1] and be
able to build _much_ faster circuits with better success. Or you can fall down
another rabbit hole, learning how to design your own PCBs. With PCB services
becoming mainstream nowadays, you can learn a tool such as KiCad (free
software) and send out your gerbers to be manufactured for cheap.

[1]: [http://www.sdmakersguild.org/the-art-of-manhattan-style-
circ...](http://www.sdmakersguild.org/the-art-of-manhattan-style-circuit-
construction/)

------
spiralganglion
I'm the solo dev on an industrial training website. We have a short lesson
about the basic electrical units (voltage, current, resistance) that might
serve as an approachable introduction or handy reference:
[https://www.lunchboxsessions.com/materials/basic-
electrical-...](https://www.lunchboxsessions.com/materials/basic-electrical-
concepts/basic-electrical-units-lesson)

~~~
gorpomon
Your site is really amazing. Well done! I was a mechanical engineer for a bit
and it's fun going through your lessons and reacquainting myself with that
world.

------
bass_case
I recommend the book "Make: Electronics 2nd Edition"

I knew nothing before starting the book and knew enough by about halfway
through to start pursuing my own projects.

~~~
asciimo
I like that his book is hands-on right from the start, and immediately defuses
one's fear of electricity with exercises such as touching a battery to your
tongue, blowing a fuse, and burning out an LED.

------
_sbrk
The ARRL Handbook for Radio Amateurs explains electricity and electronics for
the beginner, and you might also get an interesting introduction to radio,
too.

~~~
mattbk1
Many of the older editions are free on archive.org.

~~~
_sbrk
Which is a copyright violation, no doubt...

------
gitgud
I highly recommended "Every Circuit" it's a fun little electronics simulator
which helps you to understand different electrical components and their
interactions

[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.everycircu...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.everycircuit.free)

~~~
petermcneeley
I second this view with this old full circuit simulator:
[https://www.falstad.com/circuit/](https://www.falstad.com/circuit/)

The default example here is the LCR-circuit which to understand mathematically
requires a bit of work
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RLC_circuit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RLC_circuit)

------
halotrope
I found the „Hello world from scratch“[1] series from Ben Eater incredibly
helpful in connecting the dots between electricity and modern computers.
Strictly speaking it is about electronics, still it is superbly presented and
incredibly enlightening when coming from „normal“ software engineering
perspective of things.

What actually got me there was the book „Code“ by Charles Petzold[2] which
traces the development from early circuitry like light bulbs and telegraph
wires to modern digital logic. I found that after being introduced to these
concepts, learning about the fundamental physics was much more accessible
since it was framed in the context of contemporary application.

1: [https://youtu.be/LnzuMJLZRdU](https://youtu.be/LnzuMJLZRdU)

2: [https://www.amazon.com/Code-Language-Computer-Hardware-
Softw...](https://www.amazon.com/Code-Language-Computer-Hardware-
Software/dp/0735611319)

------
agumonkey
I like Tony Khuphaldt books. Simple but effective. The letter to radio
engineer's son were super nice IMO
([https://www.gutenberg.org/files/30688/30688-h/30688-h.htm](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/30688/30688-h/30688-h.htm))

don't forget googles and gloves

------
DLarsen
I am going through this Udemy course with my kid and it's really enjoyable.
The instructor is clear and really enjoys the topic:

[https://www.udemy.com/course/analog-electronics-robotics-
lea...](https://www.udemy.com/course/analog-electronics-robotics-learn-by-
building/)

------
swiley
Before you try to understand electricity try to understand work and energy.
Know the definition for a watt and what that means mechanically for example.

For really basic things: maxewels equations, ohms law, and the idea that in a
closed system potential and kinetic energy are constant. Just grab a
university level physics book.

V=IR (ohms law) gives you most of what you need for DC circuits. Remember that
power is volts x amps so you can exchange one for the other (for free in an
ideal world.)

Alternatively if you want a practical understanding here’s what I learned from
as a kid: forest mim’s book (it’s wrong in some ways but it works) the art of
electronics (this has anything you could want to know and is well organized
and written, like an O’Reilly book for electronics in general) and this really
old book I found in a used book store titled “introduction to pulse circuits.”

~~~
neutronicus
I would stay away from Maxwell's equations unless doing something to which
they're truly relevant (designing an antenna or something I guess, maybe
building a rail gun if you're into that). Maybe I'm blinded by the years I
spent as a computational electrodynamics researcher but the model is a little
heavyweight for your standard hobby project.

That said I really like your suggestion of starting with basic mechanics and
thermodynamics. "Resistors get hot, motors do work, and capaciductors are like
springs" goes a long way to tie everything else together

~~~
caf
Sure capacitors are like springs, but I'd say inductors are more like
flywheels.

------
untangle
Many folks have successfully used the US Navy training modules for electrical
systems:
[http://www.compatt.com/Tutorials/NEETS/NEETS.html](http://www.compatt.com/Tutorials/NEETS/NEETS.html)

------
joshvm
Have a look at
[https://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/electronics/](https://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/electronics/)

It's from the developer of AFL and the Guerilla Guide to CNC. Check out the
root domain for lots more interesting stuff.

------
VBprogrammer
Not sure if it's generally applicable but I've learned a lot from reading and
trying to understand how the circuits here work.

[https://ludens.cl/Electron/Electron.html](https://ludens.cl/Electron/Electron.html)

------
elric
I enjoyed "There are No Electrons: Electronics for Earthlings" by Kenn Amdahl.
It's a light hearted take in the form of a silly story, but it explains things
surprisingly well.

Guess I should add that it covers the basics of electricity and the basics of
electronics.

------
mymythisisthis
Army manual on electricity
[https://archive.org/stream/FM55-506-1/#page/n1/mode/2up](https://archive.org/stream/FM55-506-1/#page/n1/mode/2up)

~~~
InnerGargoyle
this is something different, does army have any more such guides?

~~~
mymythisisthis
I looked on archive.org and found some other interesting ones

Radio
[https://archive.org/details/TM11-666/page/n5/mode/2up](https://archive.org/details/TM11-666/page/n5/mode/2up)

Map Reading
[https://archive.org/details/FM21-26_201211](https://archive.org/details/FM21-26_201211)

Carpentry
[https://archive.org/details/FM5-426/page/n17/mode/2up](https://archive.org/details/FM5-426/page/n17/mode/2up)

Welding
[https://archive.org/details/TM9-237/page/n5/mode/2up](https://archive.org/details/TM9-237/page/n5/mode/2up)

------
beamatronic
This is an anecdote but I hope it helps someone. I couldn't understand
electronics for the longest time. I read all about the individual components
and I understood them individually, but I still couldn't grasp what they did
when put together. Digital circuits made perfect sense to me though. Finally I
learned about the "LRC" circuit. When you put those 3 components together, you
can understand their behavior with some equations. You can dial in some
coefficients to get the behavior (the signal/wave) that you desire. I don't
know how someone thought to put those components together into a unit
originally though.

------
rjmunro
[https://wiredthegame.com/](https://wiredthegame.com/) is a free video game
that is designed to give an understanding of how electricity works. It's
probably worth playing through.

------
Mongoose
Outside of electricity fundamentals, this book is a great intro on how the
grid works: [https://www.amazon.com/Electric-System-Nonelectrical-
Profess...](https://www.amazon.com/Electric-System-Nonelectrical-Professional-
Engineering-ebook/dp/B01N1IUI9O)

Or a shorter alternative: [https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/how-electricity-
grid-works](https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/how-electricity-grid-works)

~~~
brian_cloutier
I bought this book on this recommendation and I don't agree that it should be
called great. It did a good job of enumerating (what I presume to be) every
major component of power systems. However, it didn't to a great job of
explaining how any of those components work.

One example is capacitor banks, which it spent a few pages on. I'm told that
they're more beneficial the closer to an inductive load they're installed, but
I was never told why, or given any tools to figure it out why for myself.
There's not even a citation.

After reading this book I have a better understanding of how much of the grid
I don't understand, but I don't feel like there's any part I understand
particularly better.

------
erikw
For the basics of how electricity works (as well as for an in depth
understanding) my recommendation is Electricity 1-7. It's a textbook
originally published in 1966, so it doesn't cover anything digital, just good
old analog electricity.

[https://www.amazon.com/Electricity-One-Seven-Harry-
Mileaf/dp...](https://www.amazon.com/Electricity-One-Seven-Harry-
Mileaf/dp/0810459523)

------
bkanber
I experienced the same issue when I was in college. I discovered that the way
to learn for me was to find a niche category of projects and do them on my
own. I actually wrote a blog post about it a while back:
[https://burakkanber.com/blog/how-i-taught-myself-
electronics...](https://burakkanber.com/blog/how-i-taught-myself-electronics/)

------
dvtrn
Big fan of the No-Nonsense Technician-Class License Study Guide. In addition
to vocabulary and terms, there's also sections about units and conversions and
basic maths involved to understand the flow of electrical current as it passes
through a system

[https://www.kb6nu.com/study-guides/](https://www.kb6nu.com/study-guides/)

------
blueatlas
Try "Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software." It provides
a very simple introduction to electricity. Beyond that, it's just a great
introductory book on computing.

[https://www.amazon.com/Code-Language-Computer-Hardware-
Softw...](https://www.amazon.com/Code-Language-Computer-Hardware-
Software/dp/0735611319)

~~~
coldpie
I absolutely love this book, but I'd say it's more an intro to computing (like
you said) than electricity. Electricity is in there, but IIRC it doesn't go
much further than the "water analogy" style of thinking about electricity.

------
phasetransition
I originally learned electricity from Isaac Asimov's understanding physics,
volume 2 when I was 13(?). I don't remember the details, but it clearly worked
and helped me in all future education.

If you want to try and learn some basics, and then try apply them, both AoE
(mentioned already by pjc50) and "Practical Electronics for Inventors" are
good choices.

The latter is much more affordable than AoE.

------
ivankolev
Not affiliated in any way, just found it enjoyable, an Android game called
Circuit Jam was a really fun way to refresh some basics for me.

------
starpilot
I studied mechanical engineering in college, but we had to take a single EE
course that made my head spin. What helped me a lot was the "hydraulic
analogy":
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_analogy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_analogy)

Still tricky to apply it to AC though.

------
shriek
Although, not exactly what you're hoping for, there's a good documentary on
the history of electricity called "Shock and Awe - The Story of Electricty".

It sometimes helps me understand better if I get some context on things, how
people were thinking before it was discovered, what kinds of hyptothesis and
experiments led to another and such.

------
ar0b
I had an electronics learning lab from radio shack and loved the hands on
aspects. [https://www.amazon.com/RadioShack-28-280-Electronics-
Learnin...](https://www.amazon.com/RadioShack-28-280-Electronics-Learning-
Lab/dp/B000W32P9Y)

You can still find them on ebay, or similar kits if you look around.

~~~
stx
I had these as a kid but in reality at the time I think I was too young to
understand the details of what was going on. Many of the components I would
accidentally attach a large battery to and let the magic smoke out. I do miss
Radio Shack though.

------
beamatronic
I wanted to add one more thing. You mentioned volts and amps. Try to think of
them as units of measure. This helped me:

1 watt = 1 volt times 1 amp. So a watt is a volt-amp.

Similarly to how 1 joule is a newton-meter per second.

When you work with units of measure symbolically in this way, you don't need
to worry about not having an intuitive grasp of a joule or a newton.

------
21eleven
The Manga Guide to Electricity is great! Plenty of non trivial introductory
textbook level material.

[https://www.amazon.com/Manga-Guide-Electricity-Kazuhiro-
Fuji...](https://www.amazon.com/Manga-Guide-Electricity-Kazuhiro-
Fujitaki/dp/1593271972)

The whole Manga Guide to X series is great.

------
bitxbitxbitcoin
Watching Youtube videos of real people trying electrical builds (wiring a
shed, van, new house, etc), then reading the comments by real electricians
telling them all the places they've messed up and aren't to code has actually
been a very good learning experience for me.

------
ponker
Best way to understand volts vs amps is a gravity analogy. Pulling electrons
away from protons takes energy, and stores it, the same way that taking
basketballs to the top of a cliff does. The voltage is the height of the
cliff. The amps is how many basketballs per second you're dropping.

------
cpach
Øyvind Nydal Dahl has lots of good resources on his website and mailing list.

[https://www.build-electronic-circuits.com/category/basic-
ele...](https://www.build-electronic-circuits.com/category/basic-electronics/)

His mailing list is high quality but also high volume

------
anm89
Eugene Khutoryansky's youtube channel is great for understanding electrical
concepts as well as a bunch of other math and physics concepts

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukBFPrXiKWA&t=1s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukBFPrXiKWA&t=1s)

------
cameronperot
I recommend MIT 8.02 - Electricity and Magnetism taught by Walter Lewin [1].

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtlJoXxlSFE&list=PLyQSN7X0ro...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtlJoXxlSFE&list=PLyQSN7X0ro2314mKyUiOILaOC2hk6Pc3j)

------
Buttons840
Follow-up question: How do I safely experiment and play with my newfound
amature electrical knowledge?

~~~
athenot
Stay with low power. (Low tension and low intensity.)

~~~
Buttons840
How? Use batteries only?

Obviously I shouldn't plug my own creations directly into the wall. Is it safe
to use a low voltage "power brick"? Will any do, or do I need an especially
robust one just in case?

~~~
stx
As a kid I played with batteries and wall bricks or wall warts or whatever you
call them(transformers). I would not say you need an especially robust one.
They come in different sizes based on the amount of voltage they output and
the potential current they can supply. Basically if you are playing with a 9
volt battery and want to replace it with a transformer just look for one that
says 9v DC output on it.

~~~
stx
There are people who say things like its not the voltage that kills its the
current but through the human body under normal conditions it takes a decent
bit of voltage to induce enough current to really hurt you. Watch out for
things with large capacitors and large voltages. If you want to take something
like that a part let it sit for a long time for the capacitors to discharge. I
worked at a TV repair shop in high school dismantling tube TVs for scrap
components. The first step after opening was to use a large screwdriver to
discharge the flyback transformer.

~~~
non-entity
> Watch out for things with large capacitors and large voltages.

Oh man I have some retrocomputing equipment I really want to play with but I'm
a little worried as there's a huge capacitor, some of the wires coming off the
power supply manual are visibly old and to add to it, one of the first pages
in the maintenance manual is a CPR guide.

------
Causality1
I'm just going to put my two cents in and say if you start learning on
"electron flow" materials instead of "conventional current" materials you'll
have a much easier time understanding how just about every electronic
component works.

------
Nelkins
I found this tutorial to be extremely accessible
[http://developer.wildernesslabs.co/Hardware/Tutorials/Electr...](http://developer.wildernesslabs.co/Hardware/Tutorials/Electronics/)

------
i_don_t_know
I’ve enjoyed Make: Electronics from O‘Reilly. I think it’s a good mix of
theory and experimentation.

[https://www.makershed.com/products/make-
electronics-2ed](https://www.makershed.com/products/make-electronics-2ed)

------
mrtransient
I am a researcher working in the the field of charge transport, electric
current, material conductivity etc. I am happy to help you understand concepts
and answer any of your questions as much as I can. Please don't hesitate to
contact me.

------
jcims
The 'hydraulic analogy' can help with basic intuition about the terms -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_analogy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_analogy)

------
sxv
Old videos but they are clear, entertaining, and still my favorite:
[https://www.youtube.com/user/acmeschool/videos](https://www.youtube.com/user/acmeschool/videos)

------
z3ro
The Story of Electricity - BBC Documentary FullHD 1080p

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUUeGianTKM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUUeGianTKM)

Its sn excellent 3 hour documentary on how electricity was discovered.

~~~
InnerGargoyle
just watched it last week. hence increased curiosity about this thread..

------
noncoml
MIT 6.002 course, by Prof. Anant Agarwal. Videos are on youtube. Absolutely
fantastic!

------
mdavis6890
[http://amasci.com/ele-edu.html](http://amasci.com/ele-edu.html)

Great resource, which dispels a lot of myths and misused terminology in many
other traditional explanations. Fun read!

------
winrid
What are you trying with self left study, and why do you want to learn?

These are important questions.

------
walrus01
I recommend the videos at this channel. Start with the basics.

[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk0fGHsCEzGig-
rSzkfCjMw](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk0fGHsCEzGig-rSzkfCjMw)

------
tsumnia
Pirate Electronics[1] was a nice resource I backed on Kickstarter years ago.

[1]
[https://pirateselectronics.teachable.com/](https://pirateselectronics.teachable.com/)

------
sitkack
You should get a breadboard, some components and a 5v power supply. Work
through some problems in Practical Electronics for Inventors 3rd Edition. A
scope would be nice, but a DMM would suffice.

------
Koshkin
The Demystified series of books is pretty good - lots of examples, with
exercises and quizzes. On the topic, the series includes Electricity
Demystified and Electronics Demystified by S.Gibilisco.

------
haf8
The Engineering Mindset has lots of good videos with nice examples -
[https://theengineeringmindset.com](https://theengineeringmindset.com)

------
jussij
There's a ton of content on YouTube that covers this topic.

For example I did a search for _ohm 's law class 11_ and that search finds
pages of introductory videos on that topic.

------
pragueexpat
Take a look at these articles - they start with first principles:

[http://amasci.com/ele-edu.html](http://amasci.com/ele-edu.html)

~~~
kwiromeo
This is the best resource I found that really explain what this whole
electricity stuff is. I spent years at in engineering programs and none
explain as well as it is by William.

------
cwkoss
Is there a good game where you build circuits and simulate them to accomplish
various tasks?

I'd love something like shenzhen io but with more emphasis on circuits than
signals

------
ketanmaheshwari
Electric Power Systems; A Conceptual Introduction by Alexandra Von Meier is a
very informative book.

------
blendo
What worked for me was enrolling in Electronics 101 at my local community
college.

------
rootsudo
Manga guide to electricity is a cute read!

------
jonnypotty
Electroboom!

YouTube guy. Funny and does electronics basics.

------
tzs
MITx Circuits & Electronics [1][2][3] (it's in 3 parts) MOOC. They are just
starting a new instance today, so your timing is perfect.

This is a seriously good course. I've been interested in electronics on and
off since I was a kid. I tried learning from various Radio Shack books, but
never got very far. I tried some introductory classes at Caltech, and never
got very far. Tried "The Art of Electronics" and it just didn't work.

That MITx course worked.

That said, it does get fairly mathematical...circuits involving inductance and
capacitance are going to be analyzed using differential equations so if you
have never had any exposure to such things it could be rough going.

If you've been through college calculus you should be fine, even if (like me)
you've forgotten most of it. They have some refresher material that should
bring enough back to get through it.

Here's what you learn in part 1:

• How to design and analyze circuits using the node method, superposition, and
the Thevenin method

• How to employ lumped circuit models and abstraction to simplify circuit
analysis

• How to use intuition to solve circuits

• Construction of simple digital gates using MOSFET transistors

• Measurement of circuit variables using tools such as virtual oscilloscopes,
virtual multimeters, and virtual signal generators

Part 2 teaches:

• How to build amplifiers using MOSFETs

• How to use intuition to describe the approximate time and frequency behavior
of first-order circuits containing energy storage elements like capacitors and
inductors

• The relationship between the mathematical representation of first-order
circuit behavior and corresponding real-life effects

• How to improve the speed of digital circuits

• Measurement of circuit variables using tools such as virtual oscilloscopes,
virtual multimeters, and virtual signal generators

• How to compare the measurements with the behavior predicted by mathematical
models and explain the discrepancies

Part 3:

• How to construct and analyze filters using capacitors and inductors

• How to use intuition to describe the approximate time and frequency behavior
of second-order circuits containing energy storage elements (capacitors and
inductors)

• The relationship between the mathematical representation of first-order
circuit behavior and corresponding real-life effects

• Circuits applications using op-amps

• Measurement of circuit variables using tools such as virtual oscilloscopes,
virtual multimeters, and virtual signal generators

• How to compare the measurements with the behavior predicted by mathematical
models and explain the discrepancies

The first course is 4 weeks:

Week 1: From physics to electrical engineering; lumped abstraction, KVL, KCL,
intuitive simplification techniques, nodal analysis

Week 2: Linearity, superposition, Thevenin & Norton methods, digital
abstraction, digital logic, combinational gates

Week 3: MOSFET switch, MOSFET switch models, nonlinear resistors, nonlinear
networks

Week 4: Small signal analysis, small signal circuit model, dependent sources

The second course is also 4 weeks:

Week 1: Amplifiers, MOSFET large signal analysis, MOSFET small signal analysis

Week 2: Capacitors, first-order RC circuits

Week 3: Inductors, first-order step response, first-order circuit analysis,
impulses, digital circuit speed

Week 4: Impulse, step, ramp superposition, digital memory, state, ZIR, ZSR

The third is 6 weeks:

Week 1: Second-order circuits, damping in second-order systems

Week 2: Sinusoidal steady state analysis, frequency response, frequency
response plots, impedance methods

Week 3: Filters, quality factor, time and frequency domain responses

Week 4: Op-amp abstraction, negative feedback, Op-amp amplifiers, Op-amp
filters and other circuits

Week 5: Stability, positive feedback, oscillators, energy and power

Week 6: CMOS digital logic, breaking, the abstraction barrier

[1] [https://www.edx.org/course/circuits-and-
electronics-1-basic-...](https://www.edx.org/course/circuits-and-
electronics-1-basic-circuit-analysi-2)

[2] [https://www.edx.org/course/circuits-and-
electronics-2-amplif...](https://www.edx.org/course/circuits-and-
electronics-2-amplification-speed-a-2)

[3] [https://www.edx.org/course/circuits-and-
electronics-3-applic...](https://www.edx.org/course/circuits-and-
electronics-3-applications-2)

------
boogersboogers
a kite and a key

