Improving myself

Spectral Swallow

I'm wanting to learn about electricity(just the basics) like you know why stuff needs a ground wire and the purpose of the neutral and positive and negative. Basically about wiring and schematics. I did a google search and learned a bit, and tried a wikipedia search, to no avail. I don't really want to pay for it, but I'm not even really sure the terms to search for either, so that doesn't help. Basically a idiots guide to that kinda stuff.

Also want to learn about cars(knowing nothing at all, beyond to add oil when it gets past the little squiggly line, though I don't know WHY I'm adding oil). Any help is appreciated.

Fellhand

Take a class, become an apprentice somewhere, or buy Electricity for Dummies.

Most entry level physics courses will go over basic electricity.

Mothercruncher

Go to a bookstore and read a physics book. Don't pay for it just sit on one of the couches somewhere and read the book.

Then if you want to spend money later you can buy like a power supply and set up experiments. Make some series circuits or parallel circuits and shit.

Spectral Swallow

The thing is I don't want to have to pay for it, especially if the basic info is already online somewhere(I'm convinced that everything, ever is online somewhere) I do have a book about schematics, but it is well over 20 years old, and goes into talking about electrons and stuff in the earth, which I don't really see the relevance in, and the book was written in a way that is REALLY hard to follow.

http://www.seattlerobotics.org/guide/electronics.html

That's one of the ones I read, it was written in a way that was really easy to understand.

Zoolander

This is what you're looking for. Start off with DC.

Fellhand

Just learn Ohm's Law (V = IR) and Kirchoff's Voltage Law.

That got me a BS in EE.

Seriously. I was not a good student.

Spectral Swallow

Fellhand wrote:

Just learn Ohm's Law (V = IR) and Kirchoff's Voltage Law.

That got me a BS in EE.

Seriously. I was not a good student.

I've actually been reading that site zoolander gave me, it's good stuff, real easy to follow(so far) and I'm not just learning it, I'm understanding it.

So, got one about cars?

QuarterMaster

If you can get past the corny cover, There Are No Electrons: Electronics for Earthlings is an excellent book for a basic ground in electronics. Definitely more interesting then 99% of the textbooks out there.

DrFrylock

Spectral Swallow wrote:

I'm convinced that everything, ever is online somewhere.

A nice notion, although false. For depth, you're going to have to go offline into textbooks, libraries, and the like. Although the good news is that, increasingly, the deepest information about any subject is made available in scholarly articles that more and more people are posting online, but they're not organized in a way that will make it easy for you to understand.

PirateJon

Spectral Swallow wrote:

So, got one about cars?

Car's mechanical or cars electrical?

Electrical...
http://www.mecp.com/study_guides.asp

for cars mechanical, the best bet is to find a forum dedicated to the car you're interested in. Example - I have a jeep so http://www.jeepforum.com is the win. it covers more than I could ever want to know plus there's been links to cool vehicle hacks, factory service manuals, and tons and tons of how-to articles.

Jimmy King

One of the best places to learn a little about everything and give yourself a starting point to learn more is How Stuff Works. I find most of their articles to be dumbed down enough that most anyone with half a brain who truly wants to understand can without being so dumbed down as to be useless, which I find many writers on technical topics seem to have a very difficult time walking that line.