LESSON 6: BASIC ELECTRONIC DEVICES FOUND IN APPLIANCES (PART ONE)
They store your money. They monitor your
heartbeat. They carry the sound of your voice into other people's homes. They
bring airplanes into land and guide cars safely to their
destination—they even fire off the airbags if
we get into trouble. It's amazing to think just how many things
"they" actually do. "They" are electrons: tiny particles
within atoms that march around defined paths known as circuits carrying
electrical energy. One of the greatest things people learned to do in the 20th
century was to use electrons to control machines and process information.
The electronics revolution, as this is
known, accelerated the computer revolution and both these things have transformed
many areas of our lives. But how exactly do nanoscopically small particles, far
too small to see, achieve things that are so big and dramatic? Let's take a
closer look and find out!
What's the difference between electricity and electronics?
Electricity is all about
making electromagnetic energy flow around a circuit so that it will drive
something like an electric motor or a heating element, powering appliances such as electric cars, kettles, toasters, and lamps. Generally, electrical appliances need a great deal of energy to make
them work so they use quite large (and often quite dangerous) electric
currents.
By contrast, electronic
components use currents likely to be measured in fractions of milliamps (which
are thousandths of amps). In other words, a typical electric appliance is
likely to be using currents tens, hundreds, or thousands of times bigger than a
typical electronic one.
Electronics is a much more
subtle kind of electricity in which tiny electric currents (and, in theory,
single electrons) are carefully directed around much more complex circuits to
process signals (such as those that carry radio and television programs) or store and process information. Think of something
like a microwave oven and it's easy to see the difference
between ordinary electricity and electronics. In a microwave, electricity
provides the power that generates high-energy waves that cook your food;
electronics controls the electrical circuit that does the cooking.
Below are some of the electronic devices found in appliances
that make them function with low voltage
1. resistors
2. capacitors
3. diodes
4. transistors
5. integrated circuits
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