Electronics from the Ground Up: Learn by Hacking, Designing, and Inventing

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

When I was growing up in the Bay Area, one of the first gifts I received as a kid was a small horseshoe magnet. I later received a second one and began to experiment with them and found that like poles (e.g., north to north and south to south) repelled and opposite poles attracted. When placed near a compass, these magnets moved the needle around in “mysterious” ways—not to mention that I quickly remagnetized the compass’s needle and thus ruined it.

So when my McGraw-Hill editor asked me to write another book that was different from Build Your Own Transistor Radios, I had to ask myself, “What type of book? What do I cover?” ...