Since I’m sitting here waiting for Hanna to show up and do whatever she’s going to do, I have a little time to kill. So, with my tongue planted firmly in my cheek, I am going to expound on Cap’n Gary’s Theory of Electrical Engineering.
During my younger years, the US Navy saw fit to teach me their version of electronics. I sat and absorbed such things as Ohm’s Law, electron current flow, the (now defunct) theory of hole flow, and other such marvelous things.
I learned how vacuum tubes worked. Put a voltage here, and current flows there. Electrons move around, wiggle and do useful things like transmit themselves, push servos, motors, synchros and beams inside of cathode ray tubes.
I learned about transistors, diodes, capacitors, resistors, inductors, and other items that you will find under the covers of electrical and electronic devices. I even learned about the then-classified ‘integrated circuits’. (Really just little plastic cubes with discrete transistors, resistors and other goodies all jammed into a plastic box with potting compound.)
After I departed the Navy, I continued my education, getting a degree in Electrical Engineering. More classes about electron flow, hole flow, transistors, resistors, Ohm’s Law, etc.
While I was getting that degree, I had to eat, so I worked during the day and went to school at night. Fortunately, the Navy had taught me enough electronics to get a job in the business, and I was working for a company that liked bright guys who could do a little bit of on-the-fly engineering, like me.
Anyway, it was during those years that I came to the conclusion that what I was being taught in school versus what I was learning through practical experience was somewhat different.
The truth of the matter is that electron flow through a device has absolutely no bearing on whether the device will work or not. What makes all electrical/electronic devices work is: SMOKE.
You think I’m wrong? The last time you had a device (i.e. radio, windlass, etc.) pour smoke out of it, did it ever work again unless you replaced the appropriate component?
Unless you are truly lucky, once the magical smoke that lives inside all of these devices gets out, they don’t work again until you replace the part that let the smoke out to begin with.
So you’re saying, “He’s full of it.” Try a little experiment. Buy a 3300 microfarad, 5 working volt, electrolytic capacitor. It can hold five volts of smoke, no more. Hook it up to 12 volts, (with long wires, so it’s a good distance away!) and the excess smoke causes the capacitor to go away in a very spectacular fashion. Capacitors, btw, are devices that store smoke for use by other devices. They also take the little puffs of smoke moving through the wire and gather them up, making a smooth column of smoke for the next component down stream.
Resistors slow the flow of the smoke smoke down.
Diodes only allow smoke to flow in one direction. Think of them as check valves. (They also fail in the same way, usually. Instead of letting the smoke through in one direction, they simply don’t let the smoke through at all.)
Transistors are like valves. You have to push on the ‘base’ of the transistor to open the valve so the smoke on the emitter can flow through to the collector. In some cases, they generate extra smoke by getting hot and boiling off electrons. Think I'm kidding? Find a nice big transistor on a heatsink, operate the device, and put your thumb on the transistor. Chances are you'll generate a little extra smoke as the oils in your thumb boil off.
Integrated circuits are just lots of tiny resistors, capacitors, and transistors using microscopic amounts of smoke to do their job. When overloaded, they let out an inordinate amount of smoke.
Wires are pipes that carry large amounts of smoke in them. The bigger the wire, the larger the amount of smoke they can carry before they go away. Think I’m nuts? Take a very large piece of wire and hook both ends to a large battery, which is a smoke factory. I guarantee you will see lots of smoke.
Naturally, where there is smoke, there is usually fire, so if you decide to try my (admittedly destructive) tests to prove or disprove my theory of smoke flow, make sure you have burn ointment for singed fingers and a good fire extinguisher handy.
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I hope that this fully qualifies me to receive the coveted AFOC burgee.
Later….
PS: As the Mythbusters say, "Kiddies, don't try this at home. We're Egg-Spurts, and know what we're doing."
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Cap'n Gary's Theory of Electronics
