10. Understanding Power

So far we have covered the basic ideas of voltage, current, and resistance. This is good for lighting up LEDs, but for doing work in the real world, what is really needed is power. This chapter on its own adds very little to your capabilities as a circuit designer, but it is absolutely critical background information for the chapters that follow. Additionally, this chapter contains information critical to the safe usage of electronics. Knowing about power, power conversions, and power dissipation will be critical to taking your electronics abilities into the real world.