This ground breaking text offers an alternative to the standard scheme to teaching circuit theory, for introductory, circuit courses taught to all engineering majors. Using a top-down approach and focusing on a single system application, it motivates the reader to see circuit theory as more than a dry, abstract set of ideas. In answering the application theme, “what limits the speed of a digital system,” the reader sees the relationship between a set of basic physical principles and their application to a system they are familiar with (i.e., a personal computer).