The Electrical Engineering Handbook, Second Edition

Rating:
Summary: The books a part of every electrical engg.
Review: This book is really good. it has covered almost every fundamental what an electrical engg. looks out for. It will be really helpful for the designers who are looking out for some basics. Moreover it is a compilation of all fundamentals in one book and is a bible. Hence, it should be a part of every electrical engineer's collection of books.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent but Not Always Easy to Learn From
Review: This is a good handbook, and its topic coverage is almost complete. I say "almost" because it has almost nothing to say about something that I was specifically looking for, namely, vacuum tubes. (Contrary to popular notion, up this day tubes have not been replaced by transistors for high-power, high frequency communications.) On the other hand, the handbook includes exotic topics (e.g. bioelectricity) which are of professional interest to a minority of engineers. There are 118 chapters with an average of 25 pages per chapter. The physical book itself is quite attractive; the paper quality is good. The print is sharp, but a few diagrams must have been printed with a dot-matrix printer. The contents quality and readability varies from writer to writer, but there is general professionalism in most of the chapters. In a sense, this book is neither here nor there. What I mean is that some of the chapters do not go into sufficient details for learning purposes, yet the level can be quite advanced. For example, if you want to learn something about electromagnetics, there is a whole section of 260 pages on this subject. Yet the third page of this section already brings in tensor calculus, which is a bit daunting for the learner. Some other chapters are, however, relatively easy to follow. The handbook invites hours and hours of browsing. I think it is excellent for three categories of people: (i) practicing engineers who want to explore other areas; (ii) practicing engineers who want to look at their own areas of specialization from a fresh angle; and (iii) students who are making important decisions about their field of specialization. It is not the right book, and may in fact be the worst book, for the struggling student and for exam preparation. This handbook is one of the best items in my library, and it represents money well spent. In fact, with 2700 pages, it only costs about the same as Schaums Outlines per page. My closing opinion: This book, being a CRC and IEEE Press joint publication, is slightly biased towards IEEE in its references. In my opinion, this book does not provide good advice for further reading for the non-specialist. Although IEEE accounts for less than 20% of electrical engineering literature worldwide, and less than 10% of textbooks, IEEE publications account for almost half the bibliographical references in this handbook. Many standard non-IEEE books and respected authorities have been omitted, perhaps for lack of space.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent but Not Always Easy to Learn From
Review: This is a good handbook, and its topic coverage is almost complete. I say "almost" because it has almost nothing to say about something that I was specifically looking for, namely, vacuum tubes. (Contrary to popular notion, up this day tubes have not been replaced by transistors for high-power, high frequency communications.) On the other hand, the handbook includes exotic topics (e.g. bioelectricity) which are of professional interest to a minority of engineers. There are 118 chapters with an average of 25 pages per chapter. The physical book itself is quite attractive; the paper quality is good. The print is sharp, but a few diagrams must have been printed with a dot-matrix printer. The contents quality and readability varies from writer to writer, but there is general professionalism in most of the chapters. In a sense, this book is neither here nor there. What I mean is that some of the chapters do not go into sufficient details for learning purposes, yet the level can be quite advanced. For example, if you want to learn something about electromagnetics, there is a whole section of 260 pages on this subject. Yet the third page of this section already brings in tensor calculus, which is a bit daunting for the learner. Some other chapters are, however, relatively easy to follow. The handbook invites hours and hours of browsing. I think it is excellent for three categories of people: (i) practicing engineers who want to explore other areas; (ii) practicing engineers who want to look at their own areas of specialization from a fresh angle; and (iii) students who are making important decisions about their field of specialization. It is not the right book, and may in fact be the worst book, for the struggling student and for exam preparation. This handbook is one of the best items in my library, and it represents money well spent. In fact, with 2700 pages, it only costs about the same as Schaums Outlines per page. My closing opinion: This book, being a CRC and IEEE Press joint publication, is slightly biased towards IEEE in its references. In my opinion, this book does not provide good advice for further reading for the non-specialist. Although IEEE accounts for less than 20% of electrical engineering literature worldwide, and less than 10% of textbooks, IEEE publications account for almost half the bibliographical references in this handbook. Many standard non-IEEE books and respected authorities have been omitted, perhaps for lack of space.