General Electronics¶
According to Wikipedia, electronics is the study of physics, engineering and technology and applications that deal with transmission of electrons in matter. In simple words, if a device operates on your mains or is connected by a battery, it would be a electronic device. So, one can find these devices almost everywhere.
Essential concepts:¶
Conductor¶
Conductors is a material that allows the flow of electrons in one or more directions.
Insulator¶
Insulators is a material that allows the blocks the flow of electrons in one or more directions.
Voltage¶
Voltage is the difference of electric potential between two points. A similar example is how water flows from one tank to the other.
Current¶
Current is the rate of flow of electrons across a point/region. Just like the number of people crossing the traffic signal.
Ohm's Law¶
Ohm's Law states that current between a conductor between two points is directly proptional to voltage across 2 points, where a quantity resistance is established.
This list includes the most commonly found electronic devices:
Capacitors¶
A device that stores electrical energy as a form of electric field. It is basically 2 conductors separated by a block of insulator. When we charge a capacitor we create imbalance of electrons in the device, the discharge causes the electrons to return to its normal state. A simple analogy would be filling water in a bucket.
Resistors¶
As this quantity is derived as the proptionality constant of Ohm's Law, it can be defined a property of a component to restrict the flow of electricity or current through the component. A simple analogy would be that of water, the pipe though which water flows can be small or rough constricting the flow of water.
Inductors¶
A device that stores electrical energy as a form of magentic field.
Switches¶
A switch functions as a electronic lever we depends on mechanical effects to connect conductors together. Similar to valve, which allows to either flow or restrict itself.
Potentiometers¶
A potentiometer is a variable resistor. They are designed in a way in which the slide controls the area of the resistor which in turn controls in the resistance of the device.
Diodes¶
Diode is electrical device that allows current to flow in one direction, unlike resistance which will block irrespective of the direction. The most commonly used diode is Semiconductor based P-N Junction Diode.
Transistors¶
Transistor is a device that allows to switch or amplify current, or any electronic signal. They are usually made from a combination of diodes.
Digital Logic¶
The logic that we often we need in problems are implemented from the following gates and couple of more devices, this combined with various more gates help to make Integrated Chips (ICs) and even your processors and GPUs. They are made using transistors and other semiconductor technologies. Some of the commonly used gates are:
- AND
- OR
- NOT
- XOR
- NAND
- NOR