Owen Bishop’s First Course starts with the basics of electricity and component types, and introduces students to practical work almost straightaway. No prior knowledge of electronics is assumed.

The approach is student centred with Self-Test features to check understanding, and numerous Activities suitable for practicals, homework and other assignments. New Multiple Choice Questions are incorporated throughout the text to aid student learning. Key facts, formulae and definitions are highlighted to aid revision, and theory is backed up by numerous examples within the book. Each chapter ends with a set of problems which includes exam-style questions with numerical answers provided.

This text is ideal for a wide range of introductory courses in electronics, technology, physics and engineering. The coverage has been carefully matched to the latest UK syllabuses including GCSE Electronics, GCSE Design & Technology, Engineering GCSE and City & Guilds competence-based courses such as Level 2 NVQs.

The second edition now has additional applicability to BTEC First Electronics from Edexcel with coverage of fundamental topics required by students of this qualification, as well as other essential new topics that reflect recent technological developments. The result is a text that meets the needs of students on all Level 2 electronics units and courses, with a broad coverage that will be of direct relevance to any reader commencing study of this subject, or more advanced readers requiring a handy revision guide. New material for the second edition includes: kinetic energy; temperature and resistance; sawtooth waveform; fundamentals of digital communication and data transmission; industrial processes; cells and batteries; wind and solar power; CDs, DVDs, mobile phones; and the latest LED technology.

Owen Bishop’s talent for introducing the world of electronics has long been a proven fact with his textbooks, professional introductions and popular circuit construction guides being chosen by thousands of students, lecturers and electronics enthusiasts.

Companion website
A new companion website features animated circuit diagrams to indicate the flow of current, calculators to help with elementary electronic design project work, answers to revision questions and multiple-choice questions in the book, as well as essential circuit diagrams and illustrations from the text made available as PowerPoint slides for lecturers to use in presentations and handouts. http://books.elsevier.com/companions/0750669608