Electrical Engineering
How electricity is made, moved, shaped and turned into information: from the grid to the chip to the radio in your pocket.
For: anyone starting the degree, anyone who works next to electrical engineers, anyone who has wondered what is inside a charger.
Year 1 · The language
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01ReadInteractiveQuiz10 min
Calculus I: Slopes, Totals and the Bridge Between Them
Every signal is a function of time, and every circuit law is written with derivatives.
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02ReadInteractiveQuiz10 min
Physics I: Mechanics — Three Ways to Keep the Books
Energy, force and motion come before charge: the same ledgers, new currency.
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03ReadInteractiveQuiz13 min
Linear Algebra: Machines That Move Space
A circuit with fifty nodes is fifty equations; matrices solve them.
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04ReadInteractiveQuiz11 min
Programming Fundamentals: Instructions, State and Taking Things Apart
Electrical engineers simulate, measure and program before they solder.
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05ReadInteractiveQuiz12 min
Discrete Mathematics: Counting, Logic and Proof
Logic and binary are the alphabet of every digital chip.
Year 2 · Circuits and fields
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06ReadInteractiveQuiz10 min
Multivariable Calculus: Calculus on a Landscape
Fields spread through space, so the maths has to spread too.
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07ReadInteractiveQuiz11 min
Differential Equations: Laws Written as Rates
Capacitors and inductors make every circuit a differential equation.
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08ReadInteractiveQuiz10 min
Physics II: Electricity & Magnetism — Charge, Fields and Light
Charge, fields, induction and light: the physics the whole degree stands on.
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09ReadInteractiveQuiz12 min
Circuit Analysis: Why the Lights Dim When the Kettle Starts
Ohm, Kirchhoff and the tricks that turn any circuit into a few numbers.
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10ReadInteractiveQuiz14 min
Digital Logic Design: Gates That Decide, Flip-Flops That Remember
Gates, flip-flops and state machines: how a chip makes decisions and remembers.
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11ReadInteractiveQuiz12 min
Probability & Statistics: Reasoning with Uncertainty
Noise, tolerances and bit errors are probability.
Year 3 · Signals, devices and waves
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12ReadInteractiveQuiz13 min
Electronics: The Switch That Became Everything
Diodes, transistors and op-amps: the parts that make a circuit do something.
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13ReadInteractiveQuiz13 min
Signals & Systems: Every Signal Is a Recipe of Sines
Every sound, image and sensor reading as a sum of frequencies.
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14ReadInteractiveQuiz13 min
Electromagnetics & Waves: Why Fast Signals Stop Acting Like Wires
Above a certain speed, wires stop being wires and become waveguides and antennas.
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15ReadInteractiveQuiz13 min
Computer Architecture: Why Your Processor Spends Its Life Waiting
What the processor you are designing around actually does.
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16ReadInteractiveQuiz11 min
Control Systems: How Machines Hold a Setpoint
Feedback holds a voltage, a motor speed or a temperature steady.
Year 4 · Systems
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17Deep diveInteractiveQuiz15 min
Power Systems & Electric Machines: Supply Must Match Demand, Every Second
How a power station, a transformer and a motor keep a continent switched on.
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18ReadInteractiveQuiz13 min
Communication Systems: How Much Can a Noisy Channel Carry?
How information rides on a wave, and how much a channel can carry.
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19ReadInteractiveQuiz14 min
Embedded Systems: Tiny Computers With Deadlines
Small computers inside every device, running on milliwatts and deadlines.
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20ReadInteractiveQuiz14 min
Systems Engineering & the Capstone: Many Parts, One Product
A product is many subsystems agreeing with each other; that's the capstone.
MIT OpenCourseWare 6.002 (Circuits and Electronics) and 6.003 (Signals and Systems), free, with problem sets; then the textbooks named at the end of each subject.
Economics
How people, firms and countries choose when they can't have everything, and how to tell what actually caused what.