ABSTRACT
In this first chapter of the Electrical Engineering Fundamentals text, fundamental electrical engineering terms, concepts, principles, and analytical techniques are explored and knowledge that is considered elemental in the discipline of electrical engineering is presented. Readers who invest time and effort in studying this text are likely to do so for the key purpose of gaining an introduction into the field of electricity. In this chapter, the foundations of electrical engineering realm are laid by covering basic electrical engineering terms, concepts, and principles, without the understanding of which, discussion and study of terms that bear important practical significance, such as power factor, real power, reactive power, apparent power, and load factor, would be untenable.
Most of the material in this chapter pertains to DC, or direct current, electricity. However, some entities discussed in this chapter such as capacitive reactance, inductive reactance, and impedance are fundamentally entrenched in the AC, alternating current, realm.
This chapter and this textbook, as a whole, affirms that electrical engineering is rooted in the fields of physics and chemistry. Physics, chemistry, and electrical engineering, as most other subject matters in science, depend on empirical proof of principles and theories. Empirical analysis and verification require tools and instruments for measurement of various parameters and entities. Hence, after gaining a better understanding of the basic electrical concepts, this chapter concludes with an introduction to three of the most common and basic electrical instruments, namely, multi-meter, clamp-on ammeter, and a scope meter or oscilloscope.
