FOUNDATION
Learn Network Theory from the basics
Short chapters, in reading order. Each one explains an idea from first principles and leads into the topic notes.
The chapters, in order
CHAPTER 1
Charge, current, voltage and power: what the quantities mean
This chapter explains what current, voltage and power are as signed quantities, why the current law (KCL) and the voltage law (KVL) hold, and when a real circuit may be treated as a lumped model.
Leads into the GATE topics: Laws & node/mesh · Theorems
CHAPTER 2
Why R, L and C behave as they do
This chapter shows where R, C and L come from in material and shape, derives the element laws and stored energy, and names what each ideal element leaves out.
Read first: Chapter 1, Quantities and laws
Leads into the GATE topics: Laws & node/mesh · Transients · Coupled circuits
CHAPTER 3
Linearity: the one idea behind the theorems
This chapter explains what makes an element and a circuit linear, and shows that proportionality, superposition and Thevenin's theorem all follow from one fact: the circuit equations are linear.
Read first: Chapter 1, Quantities and laws, Chapter 2, Why R, L and C behave
CHAPTER 4
Setting up and solving circuit equations systematically
This chapter counts a circuit's independent equations, sets up nodal and mesh analysis as matrix equations, and solves them by elimination and Cramer's rule.
Read first: Chapter 1, Quantities and laws
Leads into the GATE topics: Laws & node/mesh · Two-port
CHAPTER 5
Differential equations for circuits
This chapter shows why a circuit with storage elements obeys a differential equation, and how the natural and forced parts, the time constant and the damping come out of that equation.
Read first: Chapter 2, Why R, L and C behave, Chapter 4, Circuit equations
Leads into the GATE topics: Transients
CHAPTER 6
Sinusoids, complex numbers and phasors
This chapter shows why a linear circuit driven at one frequency settles to that frequency, and turns each sinusoid into a complex number, the phasor.
Read first: Chapter 5, Circuit ODEs
Leads into the GATE topics: AC, power & resonance · Three-phase (EE)
CHAPTER 7
How a circuit behaves across frequency
This chapter turns a phasor circuit into a transfer function of frequency.
Read first: Chapter 6, Sinusoids and phasors
Leads into the GATE topics: AC, power & resonance · Fourier transform (Signals and Systems) · Bode & margins (Control Systems)