Make: Electronics: Learning by Discovery: A hands-on primer for the new electronics enthusiast

Book Synopsis: The first edition of Make: Electronics established a new benchmark for introductory texts. The second edition enhanced that experience, and now this third edition includes all-new diagrams throughout, new photographs, and completely rewritten text.

Learning by Discovery is a system developed by Charles Platt to enable an experience that is fascinating, fun, and memorable. You learn by building your own circuits--and by making your own mistakes.

In fact, mistakes are an important part of the experience. The book encourages you to "burn things out and mess things up" to find out for yourself the limits of electronic components. You'll blow a fuse and watch an overloaded LED, and you can cut open a relay to see how it works inside.

Affordable Component Kits are available from independent suppliers (on Amazon), or the book explains how to shop online yourself.

Illustrations are in full color throughout, so you'll see exactly what you need and how to use it.

While Make: Electronics minimizes the amount of theory that you need, it does show you how to figure out Ohm's Law and do the simple math to calculate the time constant of a capacitor.

A buying guide shows basic tools ranging from pliers to a low cost multimeter. A simple "finger test" demonstrates how transistors switch or amplify current. You can solder wires, if you wish, to build a permanent circuit, although soldering is not necessary to build all the circuits in the book.

You'll see how to use integrated circuit chips to create a simple circuit that tests the speed of your reflexes. Other circuits include a combination lock for a computer, or a game in which players compete to be the first to press a button. All the basic concepts are demonstrated quickly and simply with affordable components. You'll discover resistance, capacitance, voltage, amperage, inductance, and the relationship between electricity and magnetism.

Ideal for Beginners

This book assumes that you have no prior knowledge. It explains each concept in meticulous detail, and is friendly, patient, and fun. Positive reader feedback has been received from people ranging in age from 8 to 84. If you only buy one book about electronics, this should be the one.