Introduction to Electronics

Updated on:

Electronics is the field of manipulating electrical currents and voltages using passive and active components that are connected together to create circuits. Electronic circuits range from a simple load resistor that converts a current to a voltage, to computer central-processing units (CPUs) that can contain more than a million transistors.

 

Electronics is the art and science of directing electrons to do useful work.
An electron is a sub-atomic particle that carries a charge. Each electron is so small that it can carry only a tiny bit of energy. The charge of electrons is measured in coulombs. One coulomb is the charge carried by 6,250,000,000,000,000,000 electrons.

Electrons are so small that you can’t see them. Each electron is so weak that it takes billions to do the tiniest bit of work. The point of discussing coulombs is to remind you that there are so many electrons that they can do serious work or harm. One drop of water doesn’t have much influence on the world. A small stream of water drops for a few millenniums can dig the Grand Canyon. A large stream of water (called a flood) can wipe out a city in a few hours. Electrons are just like that but invisible to the naked eye. A boring piece of copper wire plugged into the wall doesn’t look threatening, but in can stop your heart or start a fire in a small fraction of a second if not properly handled. Unlike floods, it is fairly easy to control the flow of electrons in such a way as to do useful work. We do that all the time by turning on everything from light switches to televisions to computers. It’s easy to be fascinated by the useful capability of electrons. It’s important to remember that they can also be dangerous killers. Millions of people work with electronics every day and accidents are very rare. Working with electronics is probably safer than playing sports and definitely safer than driving a car. The way to keep it that way is to always keep in mind that it can be extremely dangerous if you don’t follow the rules of safety.