# Index for "Electrical Machines, Drives, and Power Systems" by Theodore Wildi



## jnspark (Sep 20, 2018)

I purchased the cheaper international edition of the Wildi book and am extremely frustrated with the horrible index.  I was wondering if anybody on the board and who has the US edition can tell me if the index in that copy is useful?  For example, looking at transformers in the int'l edition simply returns a ton of page numbers and no sub categories like ideal transformer model, equations, loses, etc.  Throughout the whole book it's like this and I have decided the book is useless since I can't just pick a topic to look up and read on, which translate to the test as not being able to find an obscure tidbit when needed on a hard question.

If the US edition is better, is it possible to get a scan of that and hope the page numbers are the same?

Thanks

Neil


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## Phenomenon083 (Sep 21, 2018)

Index of the US edition isn't good either. I bought hard cover latest edition from Amazon. This book is great to read but not the reference material for a test maybe that is the reason they did not emphasized on making a great index.


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## Szar (Sep 21, 2018)

Phenomenon083 said:


> Index of the US edition isn't good either. I bought hard cover latest edition from Amazon. This book is great to read but not the reference material for a test maybe that is the reason they did not emphasized on making a great index.


Wildi wasn't making a academic book or even a test reference. 

The man was arguably genius level and  wanted to impart everything he learned in the course of his career in a way that technicians could understand and use to advance themselves in a strait forward way.  That is why its so light on calculations (and uses simplifications, rules of thumb, or condensed equations)... we aren't his target audience. 

Kind of speaks to how good of a reference it is though when Engineer's studying for their professional exam can use a 60 year technicians reference!


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## Phenomenon083 (Sep 21, 2018)

Szar said:


> Kind of speaks to how good of a reference it is though when Engineer's studying fo﻿r their professional exam can use a 60 year technic﻿ians reference


Wildi is my main preparation material for power PE exam because it helps me to understand easily the underlying theory of a topic/problem. But as i said earlier and you also mentioned this book was not made for a test reference.


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## jnspark (Sep 21, 2018)

Cool, thanks.


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## Owism (Sep 27, 2018)

Phenomenon083 said:


> Wildi is my main preparation material for power PE exam because it helps me to understand easily the underlying theory of a topic/problem. But as i said earlier and you also mentioned this book was not made for a test reference.


Wildi is good but along the same lines, if you dont understand a topic or the theory, Google it until you reach full understanding. Watch any youtube videos available that explain that theory. Master the subject. Print it all out and put it in a binder and tab it in case you need it for the exam.  

Goodluck


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## Zach Stone P.E. (Sep 27, 2018)

Szar said:


> Wildi wasn't making a academic book or even a test reference.
> 
> The man was arguably genius level and  wanted to impart everything he learned in the course of his career in a way that technicians could understand and use to advance themselves in a strait forward way.  That is why its so light on calculations (and uses simplifications, rules of thumb, or condensed equations)... we aren't his target audience.
> 
> Kind of speaks to how good of a reference it is though when Engineer's studying for their professional exam can use a 60 year technicians reference!


These are my sentiments exactly. 

The book is essentially his Magnus opus and life's work. It's everything he figured out along the way when all of this stuff was new. Imagine that. Think about how old induction motors are. In his career, it was all groundbreaking and state of the art technology that was being figured out by trial and error. Think mad scientists and crazy laboratories. It's pretty crazy when you stop and think about it. Now, all this is just part of our modern everyday life that no one ever even gives a second thought to except for engineers who apply it towards practical problems.


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## Zach Stone P.E. (Sep 27, 2018)

jnspark said:


> I purchased the cheaper international edition of the Wildi book and am extremely frustrated with the horrible index.  I was wondering if anybody on the board and who has the US edition can tell me if the index in that copy is useful?  For example, looking at transformers in the int'l edition simply returns a ton of page numbers and no sub categories like ideal transformer model, equations, loses, etc.  Throughout the whole book it's like this and I have decided the book is useless since I can't just pick a topic to look up and read on, which translate to the test as not being able to find an obscure tidbit when needed on a hard question.
> 
> If the US edition is better, is it possible to get a scan of that and hope the page numbers are the same?
> 
> ...


I read a lot of electrical engineering books. Wildi's is by far one of my favorites, and in my opinion, one of the best reference books you can take with you to the exam. The best way to get the most out of any reference book specifically for the PE exam, is to get familiar with it ahead of time. The order that material appears in each chapter is very intuitive and builds on each other. The best thing to do is skim every chapter that is a subject on the exam and note the headings, subheadings, formulas, and diagrams so that you'll have a general sense of the information laid out in each the chapter. When you come across pain points like areas you've struggled with, or particular points of interest as it applies to the PE exam, stop and tab the page and read a little more indepth. You could probably skim the entire book in about two hours and have a general sense of what's in it so that you know where to look. "This is a tough question but I remember a similar one in Wildi's book. This is a sync. generator question, let me start in the sync generator chapter and flip quickly until I find the heading that fits the problem."


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## TXPE2k17 (Oct 10, 2018)

Like Zach said. I spent about 2-3 weeks pouring over the book. It illuminated many pain areas for me. Definitely make labeled tabs throughout the book. It was invaluable during the exam.

I seem to remember there being a thread here where someone spelled out the most relevant chapters to comb through, if you're crunched for time.


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## rmsg (Oct 11, 2018)

TXPE2k17 said:


> Like Zach said. I spent about 2-3 weeks pouring over the book. It illuminated many pain areas for me. Definitely make labeled tabs throughout the book. It was invaluable during the exam.
> 
> I seem to remember there being a thread here where someone spelled out the most relevant chapters to comb through, if you're crunched for time.
> 
> View attachment 11973


Nice. I will do the same. All the best


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