Mathematics

[darren adcock]

I lack the mathematics accumin quite a lot with regards to electronics.

I've been going through the khan academy online lessons.

I'm at a very basic level, I just never got on with numbers and my education was poor.

Has anyone else tried khan, or knows which specific parts of math I should be concentrating on to help me best? or is it all going to be useful?

Maybe there is an online resource specifically aimed at math and electronics? or a book?

 

[Harald Kapp]

or is it all going to be useful?

Of course it's all going to be useful, more or less, depending on what you want to do.

Basic math (+, -, *, /) for solving simple equations is a must.
A bit of matrix algebra comes in handy for solving systems of linear equations e.g. when applying kirchhoff's laws for solving voltages and currents in networks.
Differential equations can be useful from time to time. However, for many tasks you'll find off-the-shelf solutions where the differentials have been eliminated.
Analysis is imho not required for the hobbyist tinkerer, although it doesn't hurt to know at least the basics.

Apart from the pure math skills it is of utmost importance to have a feeling for what you do or try to achieve. Math is a powerful tool, but needs to be applied with reason. Sometimes a bit of thinking and understanding a circuit in terms of physical events can get you much further than brute force math.

I'm sorry for not being able to recommend specific training material.


Harald

 

[darren adcock]

Of course it's all going to be useful, more or less, depending on what you want to do.

Basic math (+, -, *, /) for solving simple equations is a must.
A bit of matrix algebra comes in handy for solving systems of linear equations e.g. when applying kirchhoff's laws for solving voltages and currents in networks.
Differential equations can be useful from time to time. However, for many tasks you'll find off-the-shelf solutions where the differentials have been eliminated.
Analysis is imho not required for the hobbyist tinkerer, although it doesn't hurt to know at least the basics.

Apart from the pure math skills it is of utmost importance to have a feeling for what you do or try to achieve. Math is a powerful tool, but needs to be applied with reason. Sometimes a bit of thinking and understanding a circuit in terms of physical events can get you much further than brute force math.

I'm sorry for not being able to recommend specific training material.


Harald

Thanks again Harald.

I will look into those terms and work out a learning path with Khan's framework to learn those.

Cheers again

Darren

 

[darren adcock]

ahhhhhh great... this is gonna help me read my oscilloscope much better..... I didn't really understand how important the matrix is.

 

[deepshika1]

I lack the mathematics accumin quite a lot with regards to electronics.

I've been going through the khan academy online lessons.

I'm at a very basic level, I just never got on with numbers and my education was poor.

Has anyone else tried khan, or knows which specific parts of math I should be concentrating on to help me best? or is it all going to be useful?

Maybe there is an online resource specifically aimed at math and electronics? or a book?

Hey man,
I just wanted a review of khan academy, I am planning on enrolling here soon.
Not so great at math here.

 

[deepshika1]

Of course it's all going to be useful, more or less, depending on what you want to do.

Basic math (+, -, *, /) for solving simple equations is a must.
A bit of matrix algebra comes in handy for solving systems of linear equations e.g. when applying kirchhoff's laws for solving voltages and currents in networks.
Differential equations can be useful from time to time. However, for many tasks you'll find off-the-shelf solutions where the differentials have been eliminated.
Analysis is imho not required for the hobbyist tinkerer, although it doesn't hurt to know at least the basics.

Apart from the pure math skills it is of utmost importance to have a feeling for what you do or try to achieve. Math is a powerful tool, but needs to be applied with reason. Sometimes a bit of thinking and understanding a circuit in terms of physical events can get you much further than brute force math.

I'm sorry for not being able to recommend specific training material.


Harald

Hey Harald,
I wanted to ask if Math is only used in theory problems and solutions or even practically while creating circuits too?
I am average at simple math, but when it comes to these complex stuff like differential equation I am below average.

 

[Harald Kapp]

or even practically while creating circuits too?

In both cases, of course.

 

[shrtrnd]

I HATED math in school.
I LOVED working with electronics.
I LEARNED that electronics is just practical application of mathematics.

 

[Hopup]

Depends what kind of electronics you want to build/study. I think you can do lot of projects with quite simple math skills, especially if you got fancy calculator available.

 

[darren adcock]

I bought "Schaums outlines, Basic Mathematics For Electricity and Electronics" for me it has been really good. I still find it very tough but then i think also I'm just a very slow learner for Mathematics. But with this in mind I've found the book very useful and am starting to see how to apply mathematics to electronic problems. It will just take me quite a while but that's ok, 5 years ago I knew very little about circuits. Mainly I build audio electronics circuits, especially of the modular synth world. I would like to eventually understand enough that I can design my own circuits. I also work with motor circuits as I build Kinetic sculptures. I like the modular synth approach as it's compartmentalized and mostly CV modulated which is tangible to me. In the next year I'd like to learn how to make Audio Filters and learn the Maths to make ladder filters.

 

[darren adcock]

In terms of Khan academy I simply didn't engage enough to be able to rate it. I have friends who love it and rate it highly. I think I realize also I engage better with text books, it;s harder to ignore a text book on a coffee table than a website

 

[darren adcock]

Contents of "schaums" text book: I couldn't find a free PDF download so I typed it out, apologies for poor punctuation.

Chapter 1. Basic electricity and algebra;
Structure of matter, Electric current, Ohm's Law, Algebra, Positive and negative quantities, Equations, Cross multiplication, Wheatstone Bridge.

Chapter 2. Fractions, Decimals and Percentage;
Fractions, Improper Fractions, Addition and Subtraction, Multiplication, Division, Decimals, Arithmetic with Decimals, Percent.

Chapter 3. Power and Energy;
Electric power, Exponents, Roots, Energy

Chapter 4. Powers of 10 and Logarithms;
Powers of 10, multiplication and division, significant figures, powers and roots, units, logarithms, logarithms of large numbers, decibels, power loss, reference power level, overall gain

Chapter 5. Resistance and wire size;
Wire length, cross section, the circular mil, specific resistance, temperature, variation, wire size, ampacity, determining wire size, SI units

Chapter 6. Series circuits;
resistor in series, EMF and internal resistance, voltage dividers

Chapter 7. Parallel circuits;
Resistors in parallel, using a calculator, two resistors in parallel, series-parallel, combinations, ammeters and voltmeters, star and delta circuits

Chapter 8. Simultaneous equations and Kirchoff's rules;
Simultaneous equations, solving simultaneous equations, more than two unknowns, Kirchoff's rules, impedance matching, the L attenuator, the T attenuator

Chapter 9. Network Theorems;
Superposition theorem, Thevenin's theorem, Norton's theorem, Thevenin-Norton conversion, Millman's theorem.

Chapter 10. Inductance;
Self inductance, energy of a current -carrying inductor. Time constant, exponential s, inductors in combination.

Chapter 11, Capacitance;
Capacitance, energy of a charged capacitor, capacitor in series, capacitors in parallel, charging a capacitor.

Chapter 12. Trigonometry and vectors;
Measuring angles, minutes and seconds, trigonometric functions, large angles, Pythagorean theorem, solving a right triangle, Scalar and vector quantities, vector addition, resolving a vector, vector addition by components

Chapter 13. Alternating current;
Graphs, the sine curve, waves, alternating current, effective values, the transformer, phasor representation.

Chapter 14. Series Ac circuits. Reactance, phase angle, impedance, resonance, power, factor, impedance matching

Chapter 15. Parrallel AC circuits;
Phase relations, filters, resonance, phasor addition by the component method.

Appendix'

A. Conversion factors
B. American Wire gauges
C. Table of allowable current-carrying capacities (ampacities) of copper conductors
D. Four place logarithms, antilogarithms
E. Natural trigonometric functions

Index.

 

[Arouse1973]

At the OP. Sometimes it better to tell us what part of math don't you understand when it comes to electronics. I prefer this method when someone thinks they are poor at math. You might amaze yourself if we give you a few tip that in fact you actually know math better than you thought.
Adam

 

[darren adcock]

Hey Adam. Fingers crossed this is the case and I can improve. I like how it works here in that we are given nudges towards learning.

 

[deepshika1]

In both cases, of course.

Thats sad to hear to be honest.

 

[Nanren888]

I have watched only a few online lectures from Khan academy, but I was singularly unimpressed with the ones I saw.
It may have been the accent: I know I aam not tollerant of accents, I may have happened to statistically look at only the worst they have. Not at all a statistically siognificant sample, but I gave it up and anyt time I get a link now that leads there, I tend to close it before reading.
You might have a different experience.
Maths was my best subject, I guess.
I leant a little of it for engineering at university.
I use it daily in engineering.
.
For analogue electronics, you can start with just + - * divide, as suggested above.
For most of those differential equations-type things, you can find a simple way, or a rule of thumb for the most common things you'd want to do.
The thing is, there have been great people there before you: They tend to have created the simple version tools you need, for you. You just have to find them.