What is the difference between electricity and electronics

Electrical engineering is the design and application of systems, machinery and equipment that use electricity, electronics and electromagnetism.

To give you an understanding of what electrical engineers do, they research and develop electrical products and systems for buildings, transport systems and power distribution networks. A sub-category of electrical engineering, electronic engineering is the design and development of electronic circuits and devices that use components like resistors, capacitors and inductors to perform their function.

Electronic engineers design and develop electronic equipment, such as broadcast and communications systems. Comparing these two types of engineering is like comparing the meaning of electric vs electronic. Electrical devices convert electrical energy into other forms of energy, for example heat, light or sound.

Electronic devices control the flow of electrons in order to perform a task. While electrical engineering is concerned with the large-scale production and distribution of electrical power, electronic engineering focuses on smaller electronic circuits.

Studying electrical engineering at university will give you expertise across a range of topics that are central to electrical engineering, and a good command of engineering principles. You will cover electromagnetism, electrical machines and drives, motion control systems, power systems and power electronics.

A degree in electronic engineering will give you the knowledge and skills you need for a solid grounding in the subject.

Electronics is a subfield of the broad category of electrical engineering, and this is the primary most difference between electrical and electronics engineering. For most people, the difference between electrical and electronics engineering is the same as between a master and an apprentice. On the other hand, electrical engineering is the science that deals with the study of electric current and electromagnetism. The term Electrical deals with the flow of electrical power or charge, whereas electronics deals with the flow of electrons.

There is only a minute difference between electrical and electronics, and both of them more or less deal with electricity. If there is the involvement of just electricity as energy, then that is called electrical. If there is a clear cut manipulation of electrical energy, then that is called electronics. The average Indian salary for freshers in electrical and electronic engineering is up to 5 lakh per annum.

Thus, there is not much of a difference between electrical and electronics engineering in terms of salary, and both the domains get paid more or less similar. There is a much wider scope abroad for these fields. Electrical engineering deals with broader categories like signal processing, communication, electronics, electromagnetism, and much more.

Electronic engineering is a microdomain that mostly deals with the design, processing and optimization of electronic devices.

Now that you have gotten an idea of the difference between electrical and electronics engineering , you would have understood that electrical engineering is a broader domain. If you are sure that you would like to venture into electronics design development, then studying electrical engineering would be good. If you are interested in studying electrical power and its processing in general, then you choose electrical engineering as the best option for you.

Semi-conductor materials like doped silicon are used to build diodes and transistors which are the modern equivalents of vacuum tubes. As said electronics is a subfield of electrical engineering, so everything which is electronic is also electric. However sometimes it's interesting to also tell the circuit has some complexity added by the use of electronic components based on semi-conductor properties vacuum tubes are seldom used in mainstream products, the notable exception being the microwave oven.

Electric: Motors, incandescent lamps , vapor iron some. Electronic: Lighting LED lamps, power supply switched-mode and static inverter.

Circuits with a high voltage or a high current power grids, engines, generators seldom use electronic devices. It's not economically viable, and sometimes not yet feasible.

But there are notable electronic exceptions:. But because semi-conductor components are delicate to use the kingdom of electronics is low voltage, low current and low power, found in complex devices used in audio, radio, television, computers, control These fields make great use of very fast and sensitive electronic components, and often wouldn't exist without them. Most devices are a mix of electric and electronic components, often electronic parts are used to control other parts and provide the interface with the user:.

In a washing machine, the motor, the heater, the valves are electric components, but the logic engine control, user interface panel is electronic. In a computer, nearly everything is electronic based on transistors , but a few parts are pure electric components fan, loud speakers. However a computer cannot work without an additional element: The software. Computers smartphones, digital thermometers, digital watches, electronic games, electronic dictionaries, Electronics deals with level of currents which are not fixed, that is the components can receive and produce different levels of current or voltage for our purpose here.

With the advance of computers, it was soon obvious using only two levels would lead to simplified circuits, faster circuits and less errors in computations. Specialized components, named digital components, were designed to perform operations on these two levels, as if these two levels were representing the two binary values O and 1. Such operations were the binary addition Boolean function or , the binary product Boolean and , the complement not and as much as we want of derived operations.

By combining several of these digital operators, an unlimited set of functions can be realized, based on inputs converted into binary data. This opened the era of digital electronics. Digital circuits are replacing traditional electronics, in all domains, not only in computer technology. For example radio receivers have been a long time only based on non-digital electronics analog electronics , and it was not obvious they could become digital except for the secondary functions. Radio deals with received signals which are so tiny everybody doubted the reception could be made using digital circuits it was like sending the bull in the china shop.

But software-defined radio receivers are now the standard. No only they process radio on a binary form, but they have replaced the hardware electronic components, filters, oscillators by pure software working on a computer. They are infinitely more versatile than their analog versions and can be reconfigured in a split second. More info on Wikipedia :.

Electronics deals with electrical circuits that involve active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes, integrated circuits, optoelectronics, and sensors, associated passive electrical components, and interconnection technologies. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top.

Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. Asked 10 years, 11 months ago. Active 5 months ago. Viewed k times. Improve this question. Hey I remember when electronic devices used vacuum tubes. In , the transistor was invented. A small device with effects very similar to those of the Audion tube, but of much smaller dimensions. The transistor controls the flow of electrons through a semiconductor material instead of in a vacuum.

This type of electronics is also called Solid State Electronics.