.Starting Electronics pdf

[...]... Snipe-nosed pliers — ideal for electronics work and another essential tool side-cutters, however, these are not meant for heavy-duty engineering work Look after them and they’ll look after you The last essential tool we’re going to look at now is a soldering iron Soldering is the process used to connect electronic Photo 1.3 Low wattage soldering iron intended for electronics 5 Starting electronics components. ..Starting electronics ones are OK for cutting thick wires but not for much else In electronics most wires you want to cut are thin so, for most things, the smaller the cutters the better You can expect to pay from £4 up to about £50 or so for a good... is still a useful tool to have Soldering irons range in price from about £4 to (gulp!) about £150, but — fortunately — the price doesn’t necessarily reflect how useful they are in electronics This is because irons used in electronics generally should be of pretty low power rating, because too much heat doesn’t make any better a joint where tiny electronic components are concerned, and you run the risk... resistances and may therefore change the current flowing Figure 1.5 Cell’s voltage is 2 V, and a current of 0.4 A flows 13 Starting electronics Take note — Take note — Take note — Take note This is a vitally important concept — probably the most important one in the whole world of electronics — and yet it is often misunderstood Even if it is not misunderstood, it is often misinterpreted Indeed, this is so... determined by again rearranging expression 1, so that it now gives (3): (3) 15 Starting electronics Thus, a current of, say, 1 A flowing through a resistance of 5 Ω, produces a voltage of: across the resistance These three expressions which combine to make Ohm’s law are the most common ones you’ll ever meet in electronics, so look at ’em, read ’em, use ’em, learn ’em, inwardly digest ’em — just don’t... that different resistances produce different currents if a voltage is applied across them, or produce different voltages if a current is applied through them, is one of the most useful facts in electronics In electronics, an amp of current is very large — usually we only use much smaller currents, say, a thousandth or so of an amp Sometimes we even use currents smaller than this, say, a millionth of... explain how to measure electricity, with the aid of a meter, another useful tool which is so often used in electronics But that’s enough for now, you’ve learned a lot in only a little time If, on the other hand, you feel you want to test your brain a bit more, try the quiz over the page 21 Starting electronics Quiz Answers at end of book 1 100 coulombs of electricity flow past a point in an electrical... projects that you do and build Last chapter we looked at some of the essential tools you’ll need if you intend to progress very far in electronics Breadboards and multi-meters are two more, which are also very much essential if you’re at all serious in your intent to learn about electronics Fortunately, all the tools we show you in this book will last for years if properly treated, so even though it may seem... number of foreign bodies in it Let’s say there are ten foreign bodies (all right then, ten specks of dust) in every cm3 of water Figure 1.1 Water flowing in a pipe is like electricity in a wire 7 Starting electronics Now, if 1 litre of water pours out of the end of the pipe into the bucket shown in Figure 1.1, we can calculate the number of specks of dust which have flowed through the pipe There’s, as near... quantity of one coulomb passing a point in one second Instead of saying 10 coulombs in one minute we would therefore say: Similarly, instead of a flow rate of 1,000 coulombs in one hour, we say: 9 Starting electronics The other important thing we need to know about electricity is flow pressure Back to our analogy with water and pipe, Figure 1.2 shows a header tank of water at a height, h, above the pipe