athleen Shamieh
Electronics For Kids For Dummies®
Electronics For Kids For Dummies®
Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, www.wiley.com
Copyright © 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Published simultaneously in Canada
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2016931382
ISBN 978-1-119-21565-3 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-119-21572-1 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-119-21571-4
Electronics For Kids For Dummies®
Visit www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/electronicsfk to view this book's cheat sheet.
Introduction
Are you curious to know what really goes on inside your iPod, cellphone, tablet, or TV? Do you find it amazing that tiny electronic devices can do so many fun and interesting things? Have you ever wondered if you can build an electronic device that actually does something useful? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you’ve come to the right place!
Electronics is all about controlling electrical current – which you may know better as electricity – flowing in a complete path called a circuit. All electronic devices are made up of circuits, and every circuit contains a power supply, a path, and one or more parts (known as electronic components) to control current flow.
By using some basic electronic components to build projects that switch LEDs on and off, sound an alarm when light is detected, tune in a radio station, and more, you can begin to understand how your iPod, cellphone, and computer are able to do such incredible things.
Electronics For Kids For Dummies introduces you to the incredible world of electronics in a fun way: by showing you how to build circuits that actually do something. As you build these circuits, you see for yourself how tiny electronic parts – resistors, capacitors, diodes, transistors, and integrated circuits – work together to control lights, sound, and timing.
The book walks you through 13 projects (plus a shopping "project") you can build and understand with just introductory knowledge. Each project includes a list of the parts you need, step-by-step circuit-building instructions (with colorful illustrations), and an explanation of how the circuit works.
By completing all the projects in this book, you will discover
✓ What it takes to make a complete circuit
✓ How to build circuits on a breadboard
✓ What series and parallel circuits are
✓ How to light an LED – without frying it
✓ Why switching electrical current between paths is so powerful
✓ How to pair a capacitor and a resistor to create a timer
✓ How to use a transistor to boost current
✓ What you can do with three different integrated circuits (ICs)
✓ How to create sounds at different frequencies
✓ Ways to control the sequencing of lights
✓ How to pull a radio signal out of thin air and amplify it
Although I can’t promise that you’ll be able to build a project as sophisticated as an iPod after reading this book, I can promise that you’ll build some fun and interesting projects – and you’ll be well on your way to expanding your knowledge so you can tackle more complex electronics projects.
This book is just a start. The rest is up to you.
In writing this book, I made the following assumptions about the interests and skill level of you and other readers:
✓ You don’t know much – if anything – about electronics.
✓ You’re interested in building projects that do something useful or fun.
✓ You’d like
