Mastering Electrical Engineering

A complete self-contained course for individual study or classroom use, with no previous knowledge of the subject required. Mastering Electrical Engineering is suitable for all GCSE, A-level, GNVQ and BTEC courses and provides a modern practical approach to the subject.
As with the first edition, the aim of the book is to provide the basis of Electrical Engineering within its covers.
Whilst emphasis remains on practical aspects of the subject, this edition has been expanded to include a new chapter covering a little more on the theoretical side for those with a deeper interest in the subject, and a new chapter on the computer solution of electrical circuits.
The reader wishing to expand his theoretical knowledge of alternating current circuits will enjoy Chapter 17, called Complex Numbers in Electrical Engineering. The expression 'complex numbers' should not be taken literally, since a complex number is dealt with here as a number which has direction as well as length. This type of approach has been adopted throughout the chapter to explain the use of complex numbers. Readers studying electrical engineering to any depth will need to know about the basis of alternating current calculations using complex numbers.
Information Technology has spread its net to include the computer solution of electrical circuits. There are, broadly speaking, two categories of computer software for electrical engineering, which are as follows. The first type consists of packages which enable the user to calculate each separate item in a problem, much in the same way that any of the problems in this book are dealt with, or a revision exercise would be tackled. The second type includes 'global' software which takes in all the data and produces the final answer without needing to show intermediate results. One such computer package is known as SPICE (Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis). Methods of solving certain electrical circuits using SPICE are described in Chapter 18. For the benefit of the reader, suppliers of both types of software are given.