Basic electronics book for 14 year old?

[jasonRF]

My nephew has a birthday coming up - I want to get him one of those "200 electronics project" kits, but typically they include no real description of why the circuits work (at least the one I had as a kid didn't). So I want to get him a basic book as well. He is 14, is home schooled (by non-scientific parents ...) so I don't think he gets exposed much to stuff like this. Does anyone have any ideas for a basic book that describes resistors, capacitors, maybe op amps or basic logic circuits? Algebra is the highest math we can assume I think.

Thanks!

Jason

 

[NigelTufnel]

You might like this book: (Make Electronics: Learning by Discovery)
https://www.amazon.com/Make-Electronics-Discovery-Charles-Platt/dp/0596153740/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1382849585&sr=1-1&keywords=make+electronics

 

[jasonRF]

That looks very promising. I see that it is at my local bookstore, so will check it out this week. Thanks!

jason

 

[jedishrfu]

This one is pretty good too:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0071802363/?tag=pfamazon01-20

and this one is also although its much deeper:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0071771336/?tag=pfamazon01-20

 

[jasonRF]

Thanks - I will take a closer look at the first one; the second looks a little advanced but I would likely enjoy it!

jason

 

[Physics_UG]

art of electronics by horowitz and hill is excellent

 

[jasonRF]

I am familiar with Horowitz and Hill, and think that it is too advanced for what I am looking for. Granted I do not see my nephew that often. I think Art of Electronics would be great in a few years if he is actually interested in electronics. I would like to get a copy for myself someday, too.

At this point the top contenders are "make: electronics", and Forest Mim's book "getting started in electronics." I looked online and saw that Radio Shack carries them both, and stopped by a store today that actually had them on the shelf. The main problem with Mim's book is the handwritten nature and old-school feel may make it hard to convince a modern day teenager to give it a fair shot.

I think I will skip the spring-loaded kit thing altogether, and simply place a Mouser order for a breadboard and the components to go along with whatever book I get. The kits are either very expensive for the nicer ones that have breadboards in them or look much too juvenile. Also, the prices on parts from a regular seller like Mouser are waaaay less than radio shack.

I must say that it is embarrassing that I am not familiar with these kinds of books - all my degrees were in EE! However, I didn't actually learn anything about circuits until sophomore year. It was electromagnetics, not circuits, that got me into EE.

Jason

 

[jedishrfu]

You should also consider a Raspberyy PI kit from adafruit.com for $100 or so. You can then mix programming in Python with controlling external hardware. Alternatively, you could also do that with an Arduino kit as well. The PI's advantage is access to Linux and hardware. The Arduino's is greater IO capability.

There's also a nice book to go along with the PI that covers its features and has a section for controlling hw:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1840785810/?tag=pfamazon01-20

We did a project with HS students using a PI, a microphone and some sensors (PIR...) to do a security system and they had a lot of fun at it.