Reddit reviews Hughes Electrical & Electronic Technology

The difference is one of scale. Electrical machines are big, electronic components are small. Although they obviously share a common base, traditionally they have been two separate areas of study. This is because the scale has a lot of implications.

To quote from Hughes:

Electronic systems have to be considered in the following contexts:

1. The power levels are very low and therefore energy efficiency may be of less importance.
   
2. Even with poor efficiency, the waste heat is rarely significant.
   
3. The reduction of distance between circuit components has led to miniaturization.
   
4. The outcomes of electronic circuits generally seek exceptionally high levels of accuracy be means of components with poor tolerances.
   
   Power (electrical) systems have to be considered in the following contexts.
   
   
5. The power levels are high and therefore energy efficiency is most important.
   
6. Even with high efficiency, the waste heat is significant and limiting to applications.
   
7. The distance to a load is only occasionally significant but generally does not feature.
   
8. The outcomes of power systems can be quite variable, yet are achieved using components with high tolerances.

Get this book, I think you would enjoy it and it would probably answer most (if not all) of your questions.

At a certain point you have to just accept that electricity behaves the way it does, just because it does. A lot of the way we talk about electricity is convention, or it makes general assumptions about the way electricity behaves that in most cases are well-founded, so you can get away with them. If you really start to dig, stuff can get weird.

If you want a glimpse of how strange reality can get, read this. It is not directly about electrons but it talks about light so there are some similarities. Plus Feynman is a great author.

http://library.nu/ can be your friend when all the copies of the text are gone from the library. Also try and look at as many of the recommended text books as possible. You don't have to read them all, but if you're stuck on something then the answer will more than likely be in one of them.

Don't be put off by programming, a simple base grasp of it will be a massive bonus when it comes to looking for jobs. I found the Schaum's books very simple to follow, but that could be different for everyone. Go to the library and find a book you like and follow that as much as possible.

This was the recommended text for a number of modules on my course and for a number of modules at a few other universities I know of. If you've time now before starting it could do no harm to start reading. (Or you might even be able to find the recommended text for your course through your school's page)