Interactive numerical and symbolic simulation: a new paradigm for teaching circuits

Too little time is made available in modern four-year electrical engineering and computer science curricula to teach introductory electric circuits and electronics in the traditional manner. The best way to improve the outcome of what can be done is to base it strictly on computer methods including especially the newly developed symbolic circuit simulators as Analog Insydes. Some insight is offered on how the complexity of expression barrier is overcome followed by three examples intended to show the proposed method at work. A concluding section argues that the time spent teaching circuit analysis by computer simulation, numerical and symbolic, is a sound investment It too can be learned in graded steps, and what is learned integrates immediately and seamlessly into everything that follows.