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Books on General Knowledge.
07-23-2018, 05:53 AM
Hey guys. So I've been thinking, what good books can one recommend for general knowledge? General knowledge in the context of science. For instance, I see movies where one character know a lot about science like Walter White from Breaking Bad. He knows how to manipulate electronics, chemicals etc.
I'm not talking about conventional academic books— they're more into theory. I'm talking about practical guides.
Any thoughts?
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Books on General Knowledge.
07-23-2018, 06:37 AM
The best would be to learn from scratch. Awaken the child in you. A good book to start with is The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments
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Books on General Knowledge.
07-23-2018, 07:47 AM
'Starting from scratch' is vague.
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Books on General Knowledge.
07-23-2018, 08:00 AM
"The Amateur Radio Handbook" has a lot of really in depth information on electronics and radio.
I've also picked up an amazing variety of information from listening to "The Art of Manliness" podcast.
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Books on General Knowledge.
07-23-2018, 08:11 AM
The generic answer would be an Encyclopedia
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Books on General Knowledge.
07-23-2018, 08:49 AM
The Art of Electronics by Paul Horowitz is a classic which gives a common sense introduction into thinking about electronics.
Rico... Sauve....
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Books on General Knowledge.
07-23-2018, 08:22 PM
EDIT: Since you're looking for practical advice, I recommend the mods move this thread to the Life forum.
How much of a scientific foundation do you already have? How much math do you know? If your goal is to learn practical electronics or chemistry, you'll have to make sure to start with the fundamentals.
Assuming you're starting from nothing, here are the topics to learn in order:
- basic mechanics: mass, motion, acceleration, energy, work, Newton's laws
- basic electrodynamics: charge, current, voltage, resistance, capacitance, electromagnetic energy
- basic chemistry: electrons, protons, neutrons, photons, orbitals, interactions between atoms, molecules
You don't need to get very deep into the theory or do a lot of math. This is just the basic stuff that helps you understand the underpinnings of both chemistry and electronics. Make sure you have all these basics down before you get your hands dirty, lest you do something stupid like burn out a LED because you forgot to add a resistor to limit the current.
Search around on the internet, YouTube, Wikipedia, etc. You'll find plenty of resources to learn the basics.
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Books on General Knowledge.
07-24-2018, 03:28 AM
Bill Bryson: A Short History of Nearly Everything
You're Welcome.
https://www.amazon.com/Short-History-Nea...076790818X
Check out the reviews. It's tailor-made for your requirements. I've read it twice on Kindle and bought a hard copy for my son who has gained a major head-start at school from reading it. Very readable, very funny, and contains some serious science. Covers everything ('nearly' everything!).
‘After you’ve got two eye-witness accounts, following an automobile accident, you begin
To worry about history’ – Tim Allen
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Books on General Knowledge.
07-24-2018, 09:41 AM
Even though you want practical science and maybe not theory, I recommend studying Calculus at least in maths because it changes the way you think and improves your logical thinking.
It's like gym workout for your brain.
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07-24-2018, 01:53 PM
The theoretical minimum by Leonard Susskind for learning basic physics. He has three books, though I'm only on the first.