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Basic Concepts

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Basic Concepts

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.

—Francis Bacon

Enhancing Your Skills and Your Career

ABET EC 2000 criteria (3.a), “an ability to apply knowledge of mathematics, science, and engineering.”

As students, you are required to study mathematics, science, and engineering with the purpose of being able to apply that kno wledge to the solution of engineering problems. The skill here is the ability to apply the fundamentals of these areas in the solution of a problem. So how do you develop and enhance this skill?

The best approach is to w ork as man y problems as possible in all of your courses. However, if you are really going to be successful with this, you must spend time analyzing where and when and why you have difficulty in easily arriving at successful solutions. You may be surprised to learn that most of your problem-solving problems are with mathematics rather than your understanding of theory . You may also learn that you start working the problem too soon. Taking time to think about the problem and ho w you should solv e it will al ways save you time and frustration in the end.

What I have found that works best for me is to apply our sixstep problem-solving technique. Then I carefully identify the areas where I ha ve dif ficulty solving the problem. Many times, my actual deficiencies are in my understanding and ability to use correctly certain mathematical principles. I then return to my fundamental math texts and carefully review the appropriate sections, and in some cases, work some example problems in that text. This brings me to another important thing you should always do: Keep nearby all your basic mathematics, science, and engineering textbooks.

This process of continually looking up material you thought you had acquired in earlier courses may seem v ery tedious at first; however, as your skills de velop and your kno wledge increases, this process will become easier and easier. On a personal note, it is this very process that led me from being a much less than a verage student to someone who could earn a Ph.D. and become a successful researcher.

Photo by Charles Alexander

Learning Objectives

By using the information and exercises in this chapter you will be able to:

    1. Understand the different units with which engineers work.
    1. Understand the relationship between charge and current and how to use both in a variety of applications.
    1. Understand voltage and how it can be used in a variety of applications.
    1. Develop an understanding of power and energy and their relationship with current and voltage.
    1. Begin to understand the volt-amp characteristics of a variety of circuit elements.
    1. Begin to understand an organized approach to problem solving and how it can be used to assist in your efforts to solve circuit problems.