Re: Comments on some of the explanations here...

On Sep 12, 1:55 pm, et...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Michael Black) wrote:
ObamaOrHillary2008 (jgra...@xxxxxxxxx) writes:
Though explanations posted here to questions are very appreciated.

I want to suggest that, instead of a rambling massive paragraph
lumping the entire circuit theory together with volts and amps and
such, to take some time to break everything out with a couple diagrams
here and there. I often don't come out of a massive explanation in
one giant paragraph understanding any more than when I started.

But realistically, if people are having problems with the explanations
here, and even maybe before that, they should be reading books rather
than asking questions here.

When someone here tackles a basic question, they are in effect writing
a subset of one of those books. But, they are doing it in an immediate
medium, so any answer suffers from the lack of publishing process, ie
rereading and proofreading and even giving second thought to what
they've written.

It is far simpler for the poster asking the question to read some
books in the first place, where they'll find lots of explanation, and
in the context of everything else, and likely that material has been
written for the long term and has been read and rewritten before
it gets published.

And too many times, people aren't asking for understanding, they
are asking to do something specific. And that's a very narrow view
of things.

If it isn't abuse, it's close to abuse to ask a basic question here
where the poster could simply read a book.

Note that doesn't preclude people asking questions here. But they
should be about reinforcing what they've read, or filling in some
detail that they can't grasp. "I want to know how batteries work"
is vastly diffferent from "I was reading about batteries and
they said XXX and I still don't get how YYY does its thing". IN
the latter case, the poster has read first, and even points that
out, and is having trouble grasping a concept, and hence any answer
is to address the poster's specific need, be it a badly formed explanation
in the book, or the fact that everyone has different ways of learning
and a different person's help may be what's needed for the original
poster.

It also doesn't preclude opinion questions. "Where can I buy a
soldering iron?" seems a tad obvious to be worthy of an answer, but
"I'm in XXX, does anyone have any experience with the local electronic
part stores? I went to YYY, but I had the feeling they didn't want
me there..." is looking for more than information.

Michael


Michael,

Here is a link farm that should provide a reference for electrical
engineering/electronics sources.

http://www.musser.com/snm/ee/


The best others can do is to point people who are interested in
increasing their knowledge of electronics in productive and reputable
directions. We can't offer shortcuts that we ourselves don't
possess. Obviously, many people who are moderately well versed in
electronics have a tendency to forget that there was a time when they
themselves were as ignorant and uneducated as many of the posters they
scoff at on these boards... but that's their karma, no?

Otherwise, there are grades and shades of answers to questions like:
"how do batteries work?" Often the most accurate explanation isn't
the Mr. Wizard version many people are looking for, nor are the mid-
grade answers very comfortable for experts in other disciplines that
rely on electronics to support their own meta-physical or political
views... In my opinion the best option is to provide reputable and/or
official authorities re a particular area, in addition to the
shorthand/offhand explanation (that's in no way authoritive).

Anyway...

.

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