So I am currently in my second year of college in a physics major. I took my electromagnetism course in my second semester and I got a liking to it. However, the course was completely on a theoretical physics level and in the circuits chapter I didn't perform the best. Sadly I also flunked the course and passed it only with a DC.

In my experimental lab course we also didn't focus on circuits and it was again more theoretical physics based (which is expected of course). So again I didn't build the best foundation for electronics.

However, I want to pursue a future in electronics. Starting my second year I want to join the robotics club in our school so I have to pass an exam for it so I want to prepare in advance. Furthermore, I am going to order an arduino kit for experimenting at home and creating my own projects.

So my question starts here now:
Where do I start? Again I have somewhat of basis in electromagnetism, however, its not the best. So where can I reinforce this what would you recommend?
In which direction should I go into? My course was completely theoretical so I have almost no experience in experimental electronics. Should I start with circuits? Or is there something I should learn before?

 

Sadly I also flunked the course

Sorry to say, it does not get easier from there. If you are flunking a second semester course in physics, I would suggest changing your major and reevaluating your career aspirations. Science and engineering are not for everyone.

 

Sorry to say, it does not get easier from there. If you are flunking a second semester course in physics, I would suggest changing your major and reevaluating your career aspirations. Science and engineering are not for everyone.

Thanks for the unhelpful reply. Also I flunked because I wasn't able to study properly. Stop gatekeeping science.

 

Hi yuke.
Remember this:
Einstein failed his first entry exams to Zurich Polytechnic at 16 in 1896. Einstein failed portions of the exam around botany, zoology, and French, but excelled in mathematics. Einstein was two years younger than most other students who take the exams when he failed it and he passed the following year with study.

alsa pes etme.

E

 

However, the course was completely on a theoretical physics level and in the circuits chapter I didn't perform the best.

Which parts were you good at, and which parts did you fail?

 

Which parts were you good at, and which parts did you fail?

Electric fields, Gauss' law, Potential, Magnetic force, Biot savart and Amperes Law I was pretty decent. I failed mostly in currents and resistance, dc rc lc and ac circuits, inductors and electromagnetic waves

 

Hi yuke.
Remember this:
Einstein failed his first entry exams to Zurich Polytechnic at 16 in 1896. Einstein failed portions of the exam around botany, zoology, and French, but excelled in mathematics. Einstein was two years younger than most other students who take the exams when he failed it and he passed the following year with study.

alsa pes etme.

E

Thank you for the motivation but it does not really answer any of my questions

 

Thanks for the unhelpful reply. Also I flunked because I wasn't able to study properly. Stop gatekeeping science.

I honestly offered as the best advice I could give you. I have seen others struggle through 4 (or more) years trying to learn something they were not good at, only to change careers after suffering all that pain.

 

I honestly offered as the best advice I could give you. I have seen others struggle through 4 (or more) years trying to learn something they were not good at, only to change careers after suffering all that pain.

Sadly the truth hurts.

To the OP, look at the NEETS course for some applied physics for electronics.
https://maritime.org/doc/neets/mod01.pdf

 

theory is just that - a theory. it only explains why something should work (expectations). it is necessary to explain things and when confirmed it is shared as knowledge but - it is only valuable when it can be confirmed and applied in practice. without that it is just a wild theory... if it is not based on reality, it is not real.

this is why all studies need affirmation... that is what labs are for ... seeing is believing. all the models and formulas are just approximations/simplifications.

it is no different than reading about food or music or martial arts or paragliding or taming the wild beast.... you can read all you like but without experiencing it - you really have not a clue what it is like. you can read about resistor or capacitor ratings but until you see for yourself how they behave when stressed, you have not seen anything yet. teachers who do not practice what they teach are bad teachers. show me a lab instructor that only follows the lab experiment as prescribed and i will show you a poor instructor. same goes for electronics professor who teaches but does not design and build electronics. same goes for astronomer who never touches the telescope... all of them are just posers.

if you want to be good at understanding and making circuits, you need to practice circuits (build and test). there is no way around that and no amount of theory or simulation will change that. practice turns things into reality, and reality is that without reading datasheets, holding part in your hand, soldering it and observing actual outcome (successes and failures), you are just assuming that things may or may not turn certain way. basically you are accumulating own wild theories...

so... get some parts and start building and evaluating circuits.

start with bench power supply, multimeter and essential parts RLC...
then go to semiconductors (Diode, BJT, MOSFET...) etc.
for quick tests breadboards are fine. for practical circuits you need PCBs and that means soldering. ge the bull by the horns...

 

Look at the tutorials on electronics, like the one on this website.

 

Electric fields, Gauss' law, Potential, Magnetic force, Biot savart and Amperes Law I was pretty decent. I failed mostly in currents and resistance, dc rc lc and ac circuits, inductors and electromagnetic waves

Are you one of those people who can deal with abstract mathematics but cannot relate it to the practical? Or were you taught well in electromagnetic theory, but your lab instruction was poor?

 

So I am currently in my second year of college in a physics major. I took my electromagnetism course in my second semester and I got a liking to it. However, the course was completely on a theoretical physics level and in the circuits chapter I didn't perform the best. Sadly I also flunked the course and passed it only with a DC.

In my experimental lab course we also didn't focus on circuits and it was again more theoretical physics based (which is expected of course). So again I didn't build the best foundation for electronics.

However, I want to pursue a future in electronics. Starting my second year I want to join the robotics club in our school so I have to pass an exam for it so I want to prepare in advance. Furthermore, I am going to order an arduino kit for experimenting at home and creating my own projects.

So my question starts here now:
Where do I start? Again I have somewhat of basis in electromagnetism, however, its not the best. So where can I reinforce this what would you recommend?
In which direction should I go into? My course was completely theoretical so I have almost no experience in experimental electronics. Should I start with circuits? Or is there something I should learn before?

Does your college have an electrical engineering program? If so, take the first course in that program, which is generally Circuits I. That will be at the other end of the extreme -- light on theory and heavy in circuits practice. It may or may not have a lab associated with it. That will also give you a sense (though not a great sense) of what engineering is versus science -- the two complement each other nicely, but they are far from being the same thing. If you like it, you might either choose to change majors, or to double major.

I was an Engineering Physics major but took a lot of EE courses for my Electronics Instrumentation minor -- plus a lot of other mechanical/civil engineering courses as electives. So I took things like thermodynamics and dynamics twice, once from each department, and was amazed at how they were two completely different courses -- which I loved, because it gave me a much richer perspective of the topics.

On another note, failing the intro E&M course is not a good harbinger for a physics major -- it gets a LOT harder from here. If the issue was poor study habits, then you need to take whatever drastic action you need to in order to correct that. You need to not only pass the intro courses, you need to master them because they are foundational for several other courses you will be required to take. Also, don't just shrug off the possibility that it just might not be a good fit for you, for whatever reason. If I had decided that I wanted to major in modern dance, I sure hope someone would have taken me aside early on and told me that this just wasn't for me and had I ever considered engineering instead.

 

There is the possible likelihood that the laboratory experience was lacking owing to lack of resources. Many schools would rather abandon laboratories and even classrooms altogether. One professor can teach thousands of students online worldwide without the bricks and mortar of a real campus. The fact is, having physical laboratories in science and engineering courses take space and money.

I designed the series of laboratory experiments for a 2nd year physics course on electromagnetism. Students were engaged in hands-on learning experience working with batteries, lightbulbs, resistors, etc. They learned how to measure voltage and resistance without using multimeters. They also experienced first hand the effects of internal resistance of ammeters and voltmeters and how to calculate these internal resistances.

A popular experiment was to measure the earth's magnetic field using apparatus that they themselves built in the lab. Students enjoyed this because for many of them, it was the first time they got to learn how to use a soldering iron.

They went on to examine Lenz's Law and building step-up and step-down transformers.

Finally, they did an experiment to determine e/m ratio of an electron.

(I quit my job when the university reduced my laboratory space.)

 

Electric fields, Gauss' law, Potential, Magnetic force, Biot savart and Amperes Law I was pretty decent. I failed mostly in currents and resistance, dc rc lc and ac circuits, inductors and electromagnetic waves

Sounds like you just need to learn a general circuit analysis method like Nodal Analysis.

For hands on experience you have to buy some electronic parts and some test equipment.
For example:
1. Resistors, capacitors, inductors.
2. DC power supply, wave generator.
3. Oscilloscope, multimeter.
You can go with the cheapest of most of these and get some good hands on experience, for example in audio circuits. You should get a multimeter at least around $20 USD though not a really cheap one.
1/4 watt resistors may be good enough, 1/2 watt better.
You can get a starter Oscilloscope for maybe $25 USD. Multimeter $20 USD.
DC power supply maybe $30 to $50 USD. You might get away with batteries and battery holders.
Wave generator that does audio probably $10 USD or so.