Before you try to understand electricity try to understand work and energy. Know the definition for a watt and what that means mechanically for example.
For really basic things: maxewels equations, ohms law, and the idea that in a closed system potential and kinetic energy are constant. Just grab a university level physics book.
V=IR (ohms law) gives you most of what you need for DC circuits. Remember that power is volts x amps so you can exchange one for the other (for free in an ideal world.)
Alternatively if you want a practical understanding here’s what I learned from as a kid: forest mim’s book (it’s wrong in some ways but it works) the art of electronics (this has anything you could want to know and is well organized and written, like an O’Reilly book for electronics in general) and this really old book I found in a used book store titled “introduction to pulse circuits.”
I would stay away from Maxwell's equations unless doing something to which they're truly relevant (designing an antenna or something I guess, maybe building a rail gun if you're into that). Maybe I'm blinded by the years I spent as a computational electrodynamics researcher but the model is a little heavyweight for your standard hobby project.
That said I really like your suggestion of starting with basic mechanics and thermodynamics. "Resistors get hot, motors do work, and capaciductors are like springs" goes a long way to tie everything else together
For really basic things: maxewels equations, ohms law, and the idea that in a closed system potential and kinetic energy are constant. Just grab a university level physics book.
V=IR (ohms law) gives you most of what you need for DC circuits. Remember that power is volts x amps so you can exchange one for the other (for free in an ideal world.)
Alternatively if you want a practical understanding here’s what I learned from as a kid: forest mim’s book (it’s wrong in some ways but it works) the art of electronics (this has anything you could want to know and is well organized and written, like an O’Reilly book for electronics in general) and this really old book I found in a used book store titled “introduction to pulse circuits.”