Book Review: Electrical Circuit Theory and Technology

This article provides a review of the technical book

Electrical Circuit Theory and Technology

Third Edition

Written By John Bird

Published By Elsevier Ltd (www.elsevier.com)

ISBN 978-0-7506-8139-1

I recently purchased the soft cover edition of this book.

The preface clearly describes the contents of the text book and the free downloads available on the Internet.

This book covers a extremely wide variety of topics from basic theory to advanced circuit theory. The book is divided into three parts plus a part for general references . Each part contains many chapters. Each part starts with a table of contents for the part and ends with a table of formulas relevant to that part.

The book contains exercises in each chapter and at the end of each chapter. The exercises are highlighted in text boxes with grey backgrounds making them extremely easy to find. The formulas are highlighted in bold print in text boxes and are easy to find. The learning objectives are highlighted in text boxes at the beginning of each chapter. Each sample problem is highlighted in text box and followed by a detailed explanation of it's solution. The answers to each sample problem are in bold print.

In addition to electrical theory the book covers diodes and transistors as well as electrical equipment such as oscilloscopes and meters. It also covers DC machines and transmission lines.

The book covers every electrical topic that would be covered in electrical courses for a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering (BSEE). As such, the book implicitly assumes the reader has taken every math course required for the BSEE.

Personally, I like the book very much and I would recommend it as a reference. The detailed analysis presented in the book is excellent. The coverage of each topic is excellent. It provides over a thousand sample problems and answers. The answers are given in an orderly step by step manner. The topics are easy to find. The content is concise as it should be in any text book.

I do not recommend this book for the hobbyist or for someone thinking about a career in electrical engineering because of the math background required to understand the material presented in the book and because of the concise method used to present the concepts.

Now the reader may be wondering why an engineer who retired in 2004 would purchase a technical text book in 2011. I love reading technical books. And keeping up with the theory is always a good idea just in case some day I find myself re-entering the technical field in some capacity.

I highly recommend for electrical engineering students as well as electrical engineers.