[2010]

The Basic Electronics

Haytham Aly
home
[2010]
Yes, there is a lot of text here to read - but this is the easiest, most economical (free) way to learn

basic electronics on your own schedule. Really don't want to read a lot of text? Then skim over

the topics below and linger on just the topics that catch your interest.

i. INTRODUCTION
Everyone today is exposed to electronic devices in one way or another. The

computer revolution is a good example. Everyone can benefit from additional knowledge

of electronics. Even a quick scanning of this page will help. A study of electronics starts

with electricity, magnetism and basic electronics. This includes Ohm's law and other

basic principles of electricity. Obtain and study various books on electronics - this is

really a must as each author will explain things in a little different way to help you grasp

the concepts.

All the internet links to other web sites found on 101science.com were screened to

provide you with the BEST the internet has to offer on each subject. This will save you

many hours of searching for good educational material. This site is for everyone from the

beginner to expert electrical engineering professional. There is something here for every

level of expertise in the world of electronics. If you just need information on one specific

area, use the table above to navigate to the information you need. If you need more

instruction - read on.

Maybe you already know some basic electronics and want to test yourself to see

exactly how much you do know.

ii. BASIC ELECTRICITY
ELECTRICITY AND MAGNETISM BASICS - It all starts with the

electrons moving around atoms. Electricity is the movement of electrical charge from one

place to another. Electric charges do not exist without their associated electric and

magnetic fields. This module will introduce you to many of the basic concepts involved

with electricity and magnetism.

MATTER - Matter is physically everything that exists that we can touch and

feel. Matter consists of atoms. Now we will introduce you to the structure of atoms, talk

about electrons and static charge, moving charges, voltage, resistance, and current.

You will learn about the properties of magnets and how magnets are used to produce

electric current and vice versa. All matter can be classified as being either a pure

substance or a mixture. Matter can exist as either a solid, liquid, or a gas and can change

among these three states of matter. In electronics the most important matter are

conductive metals, non-conductive insulators, and semi-conductor materials like silicon

and germanium.

ELECTRICAL CHARGE - Any object or particle is or can become electrically

charged. Nobody completely understands what this charge consists of but we do know a

lot about how it reacts and behaves. The smallest known charge of electricity is the

charge associated with an electron. This charge has been called a "negative" charge. An

atoms nucleus has a positive charge. These two un-like charges attract one another. Like

charges oppose one another. If you had 6,250,000,000,000,000,000 electrons in a box

you would have what has been named; one coulomb of charge.
 An easier way of thinking about a large number like that is called "powers of ten" and

it would look like this 6.25 x 10^18 electrons. It is simply a way to let you know to move

the decimal point to the right 18 places. When electrical charges are at rest, meaning they

are not moving, we call that static electricity. If charges are in motion we then have a

flow of charge called electrical current. We have given the force that causes this current

a name called electromotive force and it is measured by a unit called a volt (V). The unit

of measurement of the current (I) or movement of the charge is called an ampere. The

resistance, or opposition, to current flow is called an ohm (R).

ELECTRICAL FIELDS - Around a charge is an electric field. With every

electric field there is a magnetic field. While we can't see these fields, or yet know

exactly what they consist of, we can measure them with instruments and tell a great deal

about their behavior. We can then use this knowledge to our benefit. The design and

construction of electric motors, computers, radios, televisions, stereos, and many other

electrical and electronic devices depend upon a knowledge of these basic principles of

electricity. As you can see we have given names to these phenomenon to make it easier

for us to study and use. We could have called them Dick, Jane and Mary but instead we

named them for the scientists that discovered or first studied them; Volt, Ampere, and

Ohm. Mr. Volt, Mr. Ampere, and Mr. Ohm spent many years of their lives studying

electricity. They were not alone however as many other scientist were studying and

learning more about electricity as well.

 WATTS - POWER - What is a watt? A watt is the International System unit of

power equal to one joule per second. The symbol used for a watt is "P" for

power. Power in watts is found by multiplying a circuits current (I) times its voltage

(V). You will learn more about power in watts in the ohms law section below.

P - I*V

If you don't have a clue as to what electrical current and voltage are - read on. We will

cover that shortly.

Moving electric charges are the heart of basic electronics. Knowing what moving

charges are and how various electronic components affect the moving charges is the

foundation of basic electronics. Now, go on the other numbered sections below and learn

more about resistance, capacitance and inductance. These are the basic building blocks

of understanding "Basic Electronics".

Screened basic electronics links to other web sites.

Electricity - Simple Circuits

Circuits Archive - UWEE

All About Circuits :: Complete guide to Electronic Circuits

All About Circuits :: Volume I - DC

Water circuit analogy to electric circuit

iii. BASIC ELECTRONICS
Now that you have a general background in electricity and moving charges you can

move on to learning moe about basic electronics. Electronics puts a knowledge of

electricity to useful work. Electronics applies electrical current flow of electrical charges

to circuits to accomplish specific tasks. Amplifiers can be constructed from glass "tubes"

containing metal elements, or more commonly today with solid state diodes, transistors,

or integrated circuits. An amplifier is simply a device or circuit that takes a small signal

input and controls a larger current as it output. The input signal voltage is small and the

output voltage is larger - amplified. A circuit containing wire conductors, resistors,

capacitors, inductors and amplifiers can be configured in many ways to build various

electronic circuits like oscillators, digital logic circuits, computer circuits, television and

video circuits and much more. An oscillator by the way is just an amplifier with some of

the output fed back into the input. Sounds like a perpetual motion machine but it isn't as

the amplifiers power supply is providing the additional energy that is lost in the circuit

and keeps the circulation, i.e. oscillations going.

Basic electronics is all about electrical components and the circuits consisting of

those components . Common components are resistors, capacitors, inductors, transistors,

and integrated circuits. You will find each of these components described in detail in the

following numbered sections. The components are interconnect with conductors, either

physical wires or printed circuits. The components make up linear analog amplifiers,

oscillators, and filters as examples. They also can be configured to create digital logic

circuits such as memories, gates, arithmetic units, and central processing units.
 So you will find basic electronics in every computer, mp3 player, radio, TV and may

other appliances in your home, car, or on your body. Each circuit has a job. Components

are interconnected to perform a specific task. First learn about each individual

component and how it works then learn about how to interconnect them to make useful

end products. Continue your study by reading the numbered sections to follow.

Screened basic electronics links to other web sites.

Summary of Basic Electronics Fundamentals

Ohm's Law Reactance Transformers

Resistance Resonance Audio

Capacitance Q of a Circuit Freq. vs. Wavelength

Inductance Tuned Circuit Antennas

iv. RESISTANCE
RESISTORS AND RESISTOR CIRCUITS - Resistance is the opposition to

current flow in various degrees. The practical unit of resistance is called the ohm. A resistor

on one ohm is physically very large but provides only a small resistance to current flow. A

resistor of one million ohm's is physically small but presents a high resistance to current

flow. A resistance that develops 0.24 calorie of heat when one ampere of current flows

through it for one second has one ohm of resistance. The unit of resistance is often

represented by the Greek letter omega. Resistors are often made of thin layers of carbon or

lengths of small copper wire. They can also be thin deposited layers of metallic material. An

image of a few resistor types is shown below.

What is electrical current? Electrical current, represented by the letter "I" in formulas, and it

is the flow or rate of electric charge. This flowing electric charge is typically carried by

moving electrons in a metallic conductor or electronic components such as resistors or

transistors as an example. The unit of electrical current is the ampere, named after a french

mathematician, Andre Marie Ampere. What is electrical voltage? Electrical voltage is

represented by the letter "V" in formulas and it is the electrical pressure a moving charge is

under. In the case of a static charge, one that is not moving, then voltage is the potential

difference or pressure of the charge. The relationship between current (I), resistance (R), and

voltage (V) is represented by the formulas developed in Ohm's law. We will study that in

section 5 below.
RESISTORS AND RESISTOR CIRCUITS - Resistors can be connected in series

(end to end), or in parallel (across one another), or in a

combination of series and parallel. If you connect two, 1/4 watt,

100 ohm resistors across one another (i.e. in parallel) then the total

resistance in ohms is one half of one of the resistors. In this

example the resistance would be 50 ohms. The wattage doubles as the current is now split

between the two resistors. The combination can now handle up to one half a watt safely. If

the two resistors were connected end-to-end (i.e. in series) the resistances add and in this case

would be 200 ohms. The wattage in this series case stays the same, 1/4 watt. This

information is handy to know as it is easy to calculate in your head and will allow you to

devise additional resister values from a limited resistor bench stock.

RESISTORS IN SERIES: Connecting resistors in a string one pigtail to another is

called connecting them in series. When connected this way the resistance of one resistor

adds to the next in line. For example a 100 ohm resistor in series with a 500 ohm resistor is

the same as having a 600 ohm resistor. The wattage capability stays the same, in other words

if the resistors are all 1/4 watt the string is 1/4 watt.

Resistance in series resistance simply adds: R = R1 + R2. This can be extended for more

resistors: R = R1 + R2 + R3 + R4 + ...

RESISTORS IN PARALLEL: When resistors are connected in parallel (parallel;

meaning they are tied across one another) their combined resistance is less than any of the

individual resistances. There is a special equation for the combined resistance of two resistors

R1 and R2:
Combined resistance of R1 × R2
R=
two resistors in parallel: R1 + R2

For more than two resistors connected in parallel a more difficult equation must be used.

This adds up the reciprocal ("one over") of each resistance to give the reciprocal of the

combined resistance, R:

1 1 1 1
= + + + ...
R R1 R2 R3

The simpler equation for two resistors in parallel is much easier to use!

Note that the combined resistance in parallel will always be less than any of the individual

resistances.

Resistor values are measured in ohms. A thousand ohms is written as 1k to eliminate all the

zeros. The k represents three zeros. A million ohms is represented by 1M. Therefore; 1000

ohms = 1k ohm and 1000k ohms = 1M ohm. Since resistors are so small their value is

marked by a color code.

RESISTOR COLOR CODES - Resistors use color coded stripes to indicate their

value in ohms.

0=Black 1=Brown 2=Red 3=Orange 4=Yellow 5=Green 6=Blue 7=Purple 8=Gray 9=White
Links to other interesting web site about resistors.

Resistor Color code calculators:

Electronics Reference: Resistor Color Code Guide

Resistor Color Code

Graphical Resistance Calculator

Molecular Expressions: Electricity and Magnetism - Interactive

The Original JavaScript Resistance Calculator

4 Band Resistor Color Codes

Resistor Color Code Converter

Basics: Resistors Tutorial: Resistors - http://www.williamson-labs.com/resistors.htm

Thermal Design of resistor circuits. thermal design of electronics

PCB Trace Width Calculator:

http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Lab/9643/TraceWidth.htm
v. OHMS LAW
Ohm's Law is extremely important in learning basic electronics.

What is Ohm's Law? Ohm's Law is a formula that describes the relationship
between resistance, current and voltage in an electrical circuit. The formula is R
(resistance in ohms) = (equals) V (voltage in volts) divided by I (current in amperes).

That is: R = V ÷ I

...and algebraic rules tells us that I - V ÷ R and V = I*R.

I = V ÷ R, V = I*R, R = V ÷ I, and P (power in watts) = I*V are the fundamental

formulas of Ohm's law. (The * means to multiply the two quantities together). Where V
is the circuit voltage in volts, I is the circuits amperage in amps, and R is the resistance in
ohms.

Almost every electrical and electronic circuit involves resistance, current and
voltage. This is why it is vital you understand the relationships between them.

As an experiment you can set up a circuit by connecting resistors in series with a

battery, measure the voltage across the resistors with a voltmeter, measure the current in
the circuit by placing an ammeter in series with the resistors and the battery. If you know
the voltages and current in the circuit you can use Ohms law to calculate the
resistance. With the resistor out of the circuit you can measure it's resistance directly
with an ohm meter. The multi-meters today can measure ohms, volts and amperes
(usually measured in miliamperes in practical circuits) all in one piece of test equipment.

Below is a graphic chart showing the various relationships between resistance,

current, voltage, and power and shows how one unknown can be calculated if you know
the other two.
•

Confused? Take a look at some resistor circuits - that should help. Then come back here

to ohms law and re-read this section again.

Links to other interesting web site about Ohm's law.

Voltage, Amperage, Resistance, Power Equation Calculator:

http://www.opamplabs.com/eirp.htm

Wire Parameter Calculator:

http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Lab/9643/awg.htm

Voltage Drop Calculator for AC: http://www.elec-

toolbox.com/calculators/voltdrop.htm

Impedance/Reactance http://www.kpsec.freeuk.com/imped.htm
vi.