Quote Originally Posted by Splifted
Yeah, coelho pretty much nailed it. I'm in school studying electronics technology right now, which basically means learning how to design, troubleshoot, build etc electronic circuits, right now we're studying power supplies which is pretty friggin interesting to me

But yeah, as an electrician you'll mostly be dealing with AC I would think. Trig plays a big part in that, with phase angles and what not. But basically the two main concepts behind everything electrical is kirchoff's law and ohms law.

Ohm law: V=I*R


Kirchoffs law: Vs-V1-V2...-Vx=0
Vs = source voltage
V1-Vx = the voltage drops in the closed loop.

Ie: You have a 10 volt source and 2 10 ohm resistors connected in series. The sum of the voltages across the 2 resistors is equal to the source voltage.

In other words, the voltage drops around a closed loop are equal to the source voltage. Basically the principle of the conservation of energy.

Once you toss a capacitor or coil in an ac circut, Kirchoffs law still applies but its not as straight forward, because of the phase angle of the voltage in the coil leads the current by 90* and the voltage in the coil lags the current by 90 degrees. So basically for ohms law to still work in a AC circuit with a resistor and capacitor or coil you would have to pythag the voltages (Square root of (Vr^2+Vc^2)=Vt)
all greek to me! hah. im not even close to there yet, this is just an entry test.

ill worry about all that jargon when i get into the class and the trade.
halfassedjediknight Reviewed by halfassedjediknight on . higher4hockey Hey I gotta take a test to get into the electricians union class thingybobber and I was wondering what sort of math stuff should I study up on? just your basic algebra? or is there lots of geometry and trig and stuff like that? edit: I think it was you who said you were an electrician, if I remember correctly. thats why im asking. :) Rating: 5