Comment on What is negative voltage?
Nibodhika@lemmy.world 4 days agoUh, interesting, I had never heard of that before, I’ll definitely give it a read some time.
I find the water analogy works well even with electronic concepts like diodes (one way valves), capacitors (something like a shishi-odoshi), etc. The only place it fails is when magnetism is involved, like transformers or electromagnets.
akunohana@piefed.blahaj.zone 3 days ago
MAD respect for the shishi-odoshi reference! 🤣🩵
Also, once one has grasped the basics, I find it important to loosen up the water analogy, otherwise it will be harder - or at least it was for me - to understand that the effects of electricity that seem instantaneous (lightbulb on/off) are not the electrons moving at the speed of light, but the electric fields expanding and affecting the neighboring electrons. Right?
Nibodhika@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Water analogy still applies for that. If the pipes are already full of water if you inject water on one end it almost immediately comes out of the other, even if the water is only being injected at a slow speed. It’s not immediate because the moment you inject water the water in the pipes first compress and that compression travel like a wave much faster than the water.
The moment the water analogy falls apart is when you depend on magnetism, because electrons moving cause a magnetic field around, but water moving doesn’t generate any field around it, so it can’t imitate an electromagnet or a transformer.
akunohana@piefed.blahaj.zone 3 days ago
Cool and true! Didn’t think of that😝