Question

I despise anything to do with circuits in physics, if only because I still haven't gained much intuition about WHY all the circuitry laws come about. Any links with an (not necessarily basic, but intuitive take) explanation, Openstudiers?

Answer 1

this might not be what you are looking for but this is a good link for maxwells equations
http://www.maxwells-equations.com/

Answer 2

That's not quite what I'm looking for: Maxwell's equations are interesting in themselves!

Answer 3

Can you be more precise? What type of circuits? Active? Passive? Linear? Switching? Digital? Analog? High/Low frequency/DC? Steady state, transient state? The treatment is totally different depending on the type of problem you are tackling

Answer 4

Maybe try a circuit simulator:

http://www.falstad.com/circuit/

These might give you a better sense of the why. The rules of circuits are just ways to take apart the complex behaviour you get when you have many interacting components, and solve for the behaviour step by step. They can generally be derived from basic principles, but the reason for deriving them in the first place is their practical utility. The circuit simulators should demonstrate to you why people struggled to find rules that would let you figure out what was going on.

To really understand circuits, try to program a simulator yourself. By the time you get that done, you will completely understand circuits.

Answer 5

@Carl_Pham, I do not quite agree with trying a circuit simulator. It is like operating people before being a doctor. In my opinion, I think that basic theory is the right start. Then leave the simulators to prove the theory if you want but only after you have understood it. Simulators will not explain the rules for calculation or the scientific basis of what is going on. Better start with analysis of networks (basic one) with passive components. For that, only Ohm's Law and Kirchoff's Laws are more than enough. Then move to active devices, understanding their individual behaviour and properties before connecting them to any circuit. And so on...

Answer 6

Well, as a teacher with quite a bit of experience, my observation is that you're wrong. People need reasons to dig into the fundamentals, and you don't really appreciate them unless you have studied the phenomenology already and are familiar with it. This is why some of the best students of electronics fundamentals are ham radio operators. They already know WHAT circuits do, and are burning to know WHY and HOW they do it. Furthermore, every time they see some new basic principle, they can immediately think of twelve different practical consequences it helps explain, and that helps to solidify the knowledge in their memory.

I realize it's a common pedagogical notion these days that you should "start with the fundamentals" and build your way up. But this ignores the way people's minds actually work, and it does not surprise me that modern education based on these ideas is largely a failure, incapable of delivering solid results, and substantially worse performing than its 19th century counterpart.

Answer 7

“Well, as a teacher with quite a bit of experience, my observation is that you're wrong”. No doubt that such a statement confirms your support to an education system based upon the 19th Century style, at least.
There is a guy here that needs to understand circuits. We do not know yet what kind of circuits as I asked in my first post though you have narrowed the realm of Electronics to radiocommunications. By the way, check the “Radio Handbook” (“The Bible” for ham radio operators) published by ARRL and see how the first 40% of the book is devoted to fundamentals.
I propose the person who asked the question be more specific otherwise we could enter here into the eternal struggle of inductive and deductive rather than helping him.

Answer 8

CarlosGP, my knowledge of circuits is so pitiful that I fail to recognise half of those terms, and so, without trawling through each of their wikipedia articles, am incapable to do so. We have been taught Ohm's, and I believe Kirchoff's (but not under that name) laws, but my problem was that learning them felt a little too rote, without any real understanding of why they are such. Whereas I agree with Carl Pham in the most part, a theoretical derivation of the simplest laws from fundamentals may also help.

Answer 9

Henpen, then let me suggest you to start with the fundamentals. Let me know one specific circuit you have to tackle in order to get an idea of the level you need and then I can help you finding articles or preparing some slides that will help you understand how they work. My idea is to give you a basic knowledge that allows you to solve what you have now and what may come in the future

Answer 10

A problem with that request is that I do not 'have' to tackle anything in particular, this is simply further reading. That said, whatever circuit needed to make a simple explanation and derivation of Ohm's and Kirchoff's laws and to gain an intuition for them would be my, admittedly evasive, answer. Tangentially, if you could direct me to an materials online for how the innards of things like capacitors work, it would be much appreciated.

Answer 11

I will try to help you. One question first, what is your age and education level? (if you do not want to answer here, send me a private msg)