Historical errata for A Peek at Computer Electronics

Figure 4.14 - Digitized waveform
When viewed on-screen using my iBook, the lines for the digitized data points disappear into the lines of the graph. I have to tilt my screen down significantly to see the areas of darker lines. I would suggest representing the digitized data points differently, rather than as a darker line.

Repetition in first paragraph about the expense and power consumption of the oscillation valve.

the mention of SI is used throughout the book without mention that SI comes from International System of Units, since the book is in pdf format only, why not link to wikipedia for further information.

Either way, more information about SI should be provided.

The omega (Ω) symbol is missing.

“like in figure Figure 2.5, ” word figure is repeated.

“5000Ohm” a space is needed for clarity ->“5000 Ohm”

“side. This means that the negative side of the
capcitor ” should be capacitor.

“we would find that there is an voltage between
the two terminals” shouldn’t this be “”we would find that there is a voltage between the two terminals" a not an.

Figure 2.1 and 2.2 are equations not figures, you don’t use a figure to do calculations, you use an equation.

I would kindly suggest that you would rename all Figures that represent equations as Equation 2.1 and Equation 2.2, etc. and follow this pattern throughout the whole book.

“permanent magnets or electromagnets.” what is the difference between a permanent magnet and an electromagnet? I had to look it up.

“our ears our capable of picking up.” second ‘our’ should be ‘are’.

Second paragraph of the Subatomic Particles box, third sentence lists gluons twice.

Section 2.2 -> Resistance
First paragraph, second sentence:
“…work is being done by the electrical flowing through the processor.”
Either “electrical” should be “electricity” or it should read “…electrical current flowing…”

Section 2.3 -> Voltage Sources
Paragraph one, sentence one:
“…a voltage source is a electrical ”pump“…” should be
“…is an electrical ”pump“…”

I’d suggest changing the layout of figure 2.2. The first time I looked at it I thought that Power = Current / Voltage because the Current box is over top of the Voltage box. It’s pretty confusing to see it that way with the asterisk in between. It should really be laid out like figure 2.1.

“The Buzz…” box:
First sentence should read: “See Figure 2.6 for an overview…”

Second paragraph:
First sentence should read: “On an interesting note…”
Second sentence: “The main difference between the batteries, however, is their current capacity…”

Paragraph two, sentence two:
should read: “…and the voltage of the battery no
longer has the strength to overcome it.”

Section 3.1
Paragraph 3, last sentence: the word “to” appears twice (“…led Volta to to invent the first…”).

Under “Magnetic Motion”
First paragraph, first sentence: shouldn’t “Volta’s discovery of the battery” really be “Volta’s invention” or “Volta’s development”? Maybe I’m just being pedantic but it does seem more correct.
And while I’m being pedantic, in the second paragraph, the last two sentences refer to current being induced “on” the wire. Wouldn’t it be more correct to say “in” the wire as in the previous sentence?

Power on a Bigger Scale
First sentence: “theories and design” should be “theories and designs”

Incandescent Light Bulb
Second sentence should read: “…meaning that the filament utilizes electrical power.”
And second paragraph, second sentence: “…compact fluorescent designs which are…”

Second paragraph, last sentence:
“…require a more complex and more thus expensive commutator.” should read “…require a more complex and thus more expensive commutator.”

Last paragraph, first sentence: “It quickly became apparent…”

Third paragraph, first sentence:
“(see the Power Law graphic on Figure 2.2…” should probably read “(see the Power Law graphic of Figure 2.2”

Section 3.4:
First sentence has some weird typography going on. In “…Alternating Current and Direct Current…” it looks like just the A, C and D are italicized but all of the last “Current” is italicized. At least I think so, it’s hard to tell in the PDF.

Section 3.4 -> AC Waveforms
Second paragraph:
First sentence should be “…an example graph of an AC waveform.”
Second sentence should be “…from midpoint to peak, is called the amplitude.”

Last sentence on page, in “While the period is the time between successive peaks, for example, the wavelength…” the “for example” is unnecessary and confusing.

Why 60 Hertz?
First sentence: “There is no fundamental physical law…”

Section 3.5 -> AC Power Distribution
Second sentence should read “…create electrical power at very high voltages to transfer it more efficiently…”

Second paragraph, first sentence: “…as described by the transformer equation in Figure 3.15.”

First paragraph, third sentence should probably read “This means that >> the current in << any stray electrical wire that touches the pipe would have a place to go…”

Voltmeter: Last sentence “In earlier times, a voltmeters were referred to…” - delete the “a” before voltmeters.

Ammeters:
First sentence: “…in which case it becomes an ammeter.”

Second sentence: “…so the current we are interested in measuring goes through the meter.”

On the bottom half of figure 3.9: Power Line Loss, I believe the correct loss due to resistance in the power line should be 400 Watts. If my memory serves, the loss should be I-squared * R. That would be 400 W right?

The figure currently shows 200 W.

Thanks for a great book, btw!

“The height of the
voltage, from midpoint to peak, is called is amplitude.”

The second “is” in this sentence should be removed or changed to “the” perhaps.

This sentence is not correct:

However, some
parts of the processor may work faster than others meaning that some
data may be sitting idle waiting for the next clock signal while other
data parts are still be processed.

Missing an “s” at the end:

One problem with traces on a printed circuit board is that
they are purely two dimension.

Missing an “s” after “get”:

This presents a problem when there get to be
a large number of traces—

“is the one” is not proper:

RAM, or Random Access Memory, is the one of the most important parts
of the whole computer system

Unless I am misunderstanding something, 9 * 1.8mA is not 9.8mV. It’s 16.2mV.

“So many of the things we take for granted everyday relies”

Should be rely.

“In the first section of the book,Basic Electricity, we…”

Needs a space.

“Voltage is defined as the difference in electrical potential between two points in an electrical circuit. It is a measure of the electrical energy difference that would cause a current to flow between those two points.”

As a newbie to this stuff, I found your explanation of voltage to be lacking. You need an analogy here or something to make it clearer.

The contents are incomplete and not comprehensible. Is it some printing errors?

"
CD-RW Burners
Use a phase change medium, which melts into a liquid at 600 degrees
and crystalizes into a solid at 200 degrees.
The phase of the medium locks into place after cooling
A special erase layer
Power calibration area (PCA)
"

The word suck should be replaced as such.

The word ‘electeomagnetic’ should be electromagnetic

Second sentence is unclear “He proposed that the discovery
was centered around dissimilar metal of the knife. ”

Great book!

Thomas Watson is not the inventor of the transistor.
Neither Thomas A. (co-inventor of the telephone) nor Thomas J. (the man who made IBM use transistors) Watson.

(Error is in preview of chapter 6, so I don’t know which version that is.)

On pp 102 & 103, the graphic incorrectly labels the filament as “fila”.

Doubled word. “Similiarly, you create a a p-type semiconductor”

Electrons should be singular in the following sentence or the sentence needs some other changes.

“It then begins using this energy to attract another nearby electrons to join back up.”

“…to attract another nearby electron to…”

“…to attract other nearby electrons to…”

I don’t believe both sides will have extra electrons as described in this sentence.

“When this happens, we end up with an excess of electrons on the p-type side and extra electrons on the n-type side, creating an electrical imbalance.”

I believe the n-type side would end up with extra holes.

“…and the data outputsput of each flip-flop…”

Outputsput should be output

“…within in…” should just be “…within…”

In contrast, today’s hard drives boast storage spaces of 300GB or more, within in a considerably smaller package size.

Double word “…with with…”

These platters are generally made of aluminum or, more recently ceramic, and are coated with with a magnetized compound.

Doubled words (sort of) “…as been has been…”

More recently, a separate read head as been has been created which uses a small piece of material that is magnetorestrictive, meaning that its electrical resistance characteristic changes in the presence of a magnetic field.

Double word “… as as …”

Above this speed, some tricks are employed as as the use of special (and more expensive) ball bearings to balance the disk when it spins.

Double word “… of of …”

This type of of PSK is known as Quadrature PSK since four phases are used. It’s possible to use more (8) or less (2) phases for modulation.

Third word should be ‘possess’ not ‘posses’

para 4 “Anit-mony”

should be SiO2, not SO2

also last line: “bent” not “bended”

First para: ungrammatical sentences (and elsewhere too - don’t these books get proof-read?)

First paragraph: ungrammatical sentence: “Bohr found that … the electrons had
the orbits had discrete energies, meaning that only certain electron
orbits were allowed.”

In the penultimate paragraph, second line we have:
“Hydrogen, with atomic number 1, has one 1one electron in this shell”.

There are too many “one” or “1” in this line.