Comments by "George Reynolds" (@karhukivi) on "The Engineering Mindset" channel.

  1. Hole flow is what happens in semiconductors, as well as electron flow in the opposite direction. However, in metals there is only electron flow and in electrolytes there is also negative and positive ion flow.
    14
  2. You are forgetting internal resistance which is not zero!
    4
  3. At last, someone with common sense! It doesn't matter which system you use as long as you don't mix them up and make stupid mistakes in circuit design.
    4
  4. The inductance of the relay coil produces a "back EMF" when it is switched off. The energy stored in the magnetic field of the coil appears as a voltage in the opposite direction and the flyback diode just shorts this to prevent it doing something unwanted elsewhere in the circuit which operates the relay.
    3
  5. A dead battery has a high internal resistance even though the terminal voltage on open circuit stays at 12V. To test a battery you have to load it i.e. draw a significant current from it. You need a new battery, most likely.
    3
  6. As a physicist working with electronic equipment for over 40 years I can say it doesn't matter which one you use as long as you understand what you are doing!
    3
  7. Agree. It has to be in conductive ground like wet clay and not dry gravel. A ground test with a Megger is advisable.
    3
  8. The internal resistance has increased. If you draw almost nil current, the voltage is 1.5, but once a current is drawn through an external resistance, you have to include the internal resistance too.
    2
  9.  @anonymous_FoX The unit mA is current, mAh is capacity. You can short out a 24V truck battery with a spanner and get several hundred amps for a few seconds until the spanner melts! If the battery is not charged enough, or already defective, then it will be discharged if the spanner is left there long enough. By Ohms Law, the resistance is R=V/I so 24/200 = 0.12 Ohms. The starter motor will also draw a current of 100 to 300 Amps. You don't need inductors, capacitors or transistors to get a current of 200Amps. What happens in practice is the resistance will heat up (I^R effec) and the resistance will increase, so the current reduces. If the excess heat builds up, the resistor will melt and/or fail, just like that spanner.
    2
  10. A flat battery can be recharged fully, a defective battery won't charge properly if at all.
    2
  11.  @captainprototype187  I'm presuming you are talking about a lead-acid (i.e. car-type) batttery or a lead gel-cell? A 12V car headlight (55W) connected to the battery should light for 3 minutes without going dim, and the voltage should still read 12V. If the light goes dim and the voltage drops below 10V then it is the battery that is failing. If this test is OK, then perhaps there is a fault elsewhere in the scooter. Garages also have testers which put a heavy load (100A) to mimic a starter motor load, and that shows up a battery fault immediately. Good luck!
    2
  12. Ohm's Law really only applies to metals and direct current and is not really a "law" as there are many things that do not obey it. For example, semi-conductors, ionised gases, ionic solutions, soil and rocks, and incandescent lamps. Alternating current circuits do not obey it if there are inductive or resistive components. Even metals do not obey it at high current densities. However, for most DC electrical circuits it is a fairly useful formula.
    2
  13.  @StoneShards  The electron is like an ant, the charge to mass ratio is huge, so a slow movement of electrons - and there are a lot of them in 1 square millimeter - is plenty to give rise to a large current. They do not travel at 96% of the speed of light, that might be beta particles in air, but not electrons in a metal conductor. The velocity as you say, is proportional to the voltage gradient.
    2
  14.  @StoneShards  Hi Peter, I re-read your message and I see where the confusion arises. The impulse effect of a current is almost instantaneous as you say, but wave motion is not particle motion as you can see in the sea where a wave passes but a floating object just bobs up and down. If you google on "drift velocity" there is a calculation on a Wikipedia page that shows a velocity of 23um/s for a 1A current in a 2mm diameter copper conductor. My estimate was for 10A and would give 83cm/hour for the same 2mm wire, close to my "back of the envelope" 1 metre/hour.
    2
  15.  @StoneShards  Yes, "current" as a wave travels fast, but not the electrons! Those executive desk toys with a line of steel balls illustrates that nicely - one ball strikes one end and the ball at the far end jumps off. The wave moved fast but the intervening balls hardly moved at all.
    2
  16.  @amramjose  Whatever works best for you, stick to it!
    2
  17.  @WTF_BBQ  "Hole" flow is for semiconductors, not conventional flow as in metallic conductors. Some beginners find a current flowing from negative to positive very counter-intuitive. Also the rules about induction like Lenz's law have to be reversed for electron flow as they were devised for conventional flow. The best thing is to stick to whichever system you were taught for electronics. In physics we always use electron flow.
    2
  18.  @millomweb  Alpha particles are charged atoms of helium, they most certainly do exist!
    2
  19. Yes, for parallel connection each diode should have its own resistor, not one resistor for all!
    2
  20.  @therbertme  That is of no consequence in dealing with electricity or electronic circuits. In metallic conductors, the outermost electrons can leave the vicinity of their atom and wander freely through the metallic molecular lattice. In a single atom, these outermost electrons are held, albeit weakly, but when a lot of atoms are present as in a metal, the forces holding them are reduced collectively and they become free to move. These are known as "conduction" electrons and give rise to electricity.
    2
  21. A typical LED is lighting normally at 20mA for for a 5V supply, the limiting resistor is found by dividing 5000 mV by 20 mA giving 250 ohms. So a 270 ohm resistor will do just fine. Using a lower resistance the LED might be too bright and even burn out, a higher resistor gives a dimmer light.
    2
  22. It also bounces higher when dropped onto a hard surface, as the internal components have dried out and become solid.
    2
  23. Very true!
    1
  24. The silver and gold stripes are the tolerance, so they should be on the right and you read the other stripes from left to right.
    1
  25. You are correct, the two lamps might not have identical resistances so may not glow equally bright.
    1
  26. But not equally. More current through the lower impedance path.
    1
  27. The tolerance is usually gold or silver.
    1
  28. An amplifier is not converting DC to AC, that is an inverter.
    1
  29. It comes from a charge separation between the earth surface and the cloud, and within the cloud also. So lightning can flash between parts of the cloud or from cloud to the ground.
    1
  30. Because most of the energy is in the visible band so we see it as light. Normal diodes emit energy in the infra-red band which is perceived as heat. LEDs do produce some heat too, but less than a similar "normal" diode. It is the current which produces the heat, a normal diode might be rated up to 2amps or even more, but LEDs function with a small current of 10 to 50 milli-amps.
    1
  31. The video is about alternators, not car engines! He did explain what B, S & F mean at 4:28.
    1
  32. Agree!
    1
  33. That is correct, the outer electrons are the valence electrons and in a metallic molecule, the neighbouring atoms cause the threshold to be lowered and these electrons are then free to move around and become conduction electrons. They do hold energy in discrete amounts in the quantum mechanical domain.
    1
  34. Too small!
    1
  35. There is no "used" current and no energy levels of electrons involved. Better to think of potentials, the neutral is connected to ground so it has the same potential as "ground" and no current should flow through anyone touching the neutral conductor. The "hot" wire is alternating between +310V to -310V, with an average ("RMS" or "root mean square") voltage of +220V or -220V relative to ground (European system). So if you are standing on the ground (with poor insulation) and touch the hot wire, you will have an alternating current pass through you as the voltage swings up to +310V and then to -310V 50 times per second. Sometimes the neutral is badly connected to earth at the transformer, or the ground is resistive and not at zero potential, or even incorrect wire colours, so touching the neutral conductor is never recommended unless the circuit is turned off, i.e. isolated.
    1
  36. The "preferred" path is the one with the lowest impedance.
    1
  37. You'll have to talk to Benjamin Franklin about that, he called it wrong and they only found out the electron was negative 150 years later! Makes no difference to an electrician who works with AC. It only matters for electrochemistry, gas discharge tubes and magnets. Physicists who work with those things have no problem using an old convention, just like changing units.
    1
  38. Probably less than 20 mA if you are still alive. Current depends on the resistance (and reactance, for AC circuits) and finger tips are usually dry.
    1
  39. Yes, very slow, the electrons drift at approx 1 m/h for a 10A current in a typical copper wire.
    1
  40.  @StoneShards  That was 1 metre per hour, not 1 mile per hour!
    1
  41.  @EngineeringMindset  Yes, warming the battery improves the chemical reactions with the last available chemicals as well as lowering the internal resistance somewhat. The opposite is also true - to conserve a battery, it is best to keep it cool.
    1
  42. Not if they are set into concrete. A metal bar in contact with damp soil is the best.
    1
  43. Electrons move through the wire in response to an electric field caused by a potential difference. In the case of DC the drift velocity is about 2-10 cm/hour.
    1
  44. And a dim LED....
    1
  45.  @stevemorse5052  Some devices cannot source much current, so in effect the limit resistor is inside the device connected to the LED.
    1
  46. It makes no difference to electronics or electronic design. No difference to an electrician either. It really only matters when dealing with magnetics, electrochemistry and gas discharge tubes. The "convention" is embedded in the symbols, and very confusing to switch a student from one system to another. Blame Benjamin Franklin for calling it wrong 150 years before the electron was found to be negative!
    1
  47. Actually a battery is more like a pump as it is a chemical reaction that is forcing electrons to move. A capacitor is more like a water tank as it is storing charge.
    1
  48. The current depends on the resistance in series. The voltage across that resistance gives you the amount of current. Usually an oscilloscope is required as the current is decreasing all the time as the capacitor discharges.
    1
  49. That is not Finnish... It is Greek!
    1
  50. If you think of a car where only positive wires run to the devices and the negative "return" is through the metal body of the car, then how could you put a fuse in the negative part? The fuses are on the positive sides of the circuits. However in some very old models of cars (like my first one!) they had a positive earth return so the fuses were all in the negative side. It is just a convention but it makes reading electronic circuits easier.
    1
  51. Doesn't make any difference! They didn't know the polarity of electrons for a long time after electricity was discovered. Electron flow is only relevant in electrochemistry and physics e.g. gas discharge devices etc., not for automotive or industrial electricians.
    1
  52.  @augustaking8  Who exactly is lying and why? "Conventional" flow is just a convention before they understood electrons. I did say electron flow is only relevant in physics and electrochemistry, it doesn't matter a whit to a guy servicing an amplifier or wiring a house and certainly not to an automotive electrician fitting a voltage regulator to an alternator, which is, incidentally, the subject of the video you were watching!
    1
  53.  @augustaking8  This is a video to explain to people with no electrical knowledge at all what an alternator is. The animations for electrical devices are always simplified.
    1
  54.  @augustaking8  In some schools and universities electron flow is the teaching base. However, conventional symbols for electronic components have been devised with arrow-like shapes to indicate conventional flow, e.g. diodes, transistors etc. Electrochemistry requires electron flow knowledge as the electrode reactions only make sense in this domain. Physics students understand both conventions but beginners at electricity struggle with basic concepts such as magnetism and three-phase, even current and voltage, ac and dc. You can see this in the comments on other videos, so best to keep it simple until they understand the basic idea and then later introduce the more complex elements. A pity Benjamin Franklin called it wrongly back in 1752, 145 years before the electron was discovered to be the charge carrier!
    1
  55. Then perhaps you should stop paying the electricity company and rip out all the wires!
    1
  56. Electrostatic charge can be transferred through them, so a transient current does pass, but not a sustained one unless it is alternating current.
    1
  57.  @PlayitonPan  They don't short circuit as the voltage on the neighbour is opposing it, but they do equilibrate and they will usually end up with exactly the same voltage.
    1
  58. Most electronic technicians have used conventional current all their lives with absolutely no problem. Electron current, on the other hand, creates much confusion with a counter-intuitive flow from negative to positive giving some people real difficulties!
    1
  59.  @augustaking8  You should ask the students doing electricity and electronics that have such difficulty with that. You're clearly not in the teaching profession!
    1
  60.  @augustaking8  You make this sound like religion!
    1
  61.  @Total-Solutions  A 100 Ohm resistor will not test a car battery, nor will it draw 700A. By Ohm's law the current I = V/R = 12/100 = 120mA.
    1
  62. Because the ground may not be very conductive everywhere. The bar could be in dry gravel while a copper pipe might be in contact with wet soil, so bonding them together prevents a difference in potential between them.
    1
  63.  @franciscoperna7963  It's the current you have to start with. A simple LED (not in some device with other components) will tolerate 10 to 30 mA, (0.01-0.03A) so you must choose a resistor to put in series with the LED that will limit the current. If you want to connect it to a 12V supply, then 12/0.02 = 600 Ohms, so you could use a higher resistor value of 680 Ohm resistor and the current would not exceed 20 mA. There is a small voltage drop across a LED (depending on its colour ; 1.8V for red to 3.3V for blue) so a more exact calculation would be for a blue LED of (12-3.3) 8.7/0.02 = 435 Ohms and nearest resistor value of 470 Ohms for the series resistor. If the LED is not bright enough, you can reduce this resistance to a lower value but if it is too bright, then you risk burning it out. Trial and error is the last resort, I have burnt out many LEDs from experimenting! Hope this helps.
    1
  64. Three things could happen - they won't light up, they light up, or one blows. The circuit should be designed for them to light up at a suitable brightness, i.e. the ideal current..
    1
  65.  @Willy_Tepes  That's correct, to get the ideal current in each LED. Some LEDs have resistors built-in and others are even more clever with current regulation etc. But for plain vanilla LEDs you aim to get the ideal current as per the specs.
    1
  66. if you look at most of the questions, the understanding of what cells and batteries do is rather limited, so semantics are not really an issue here!
    1
  67.  @VictorGonzalez-mi5kd  The battery helps to stabilise the voltage at around 12V. If you remove the battery with the engine running the voltage will increase to 14.4V or even higher and this will help burn out the lights and other devices sooner than they should. I burnt out my radio because of a higher than normal charging voltage.
    1
  68. You will be on a delicate edge. A shade less voltage and the LED goes out, a shade more and it pops! Not a good strategy....
    1
  69. If it is charging at more than 14.4 V then there is a voltage regulator problem and other electric/electronic devices could be damaged, e.g. radios satnavs, headlights etc.
    1
  70. They will have twice the voltage and so they can supply twice the current through the same resistor, but the total capacity remains the same.
    1
  71. Incorrect. The speed of the vehicle (not the acceleration) is proportional to the crankshaft speed via the gearing.
    1
  72. No! The internal resistance rises as a battery loses its charge (due to the chemicals being used up, mainly the zinc case) so on open circuit (i.e. no load connected) a dead battery might show the full nominal voltage with a high-impedance voltmeter.
    1
  73. "Phase" is the jargon for "hot" or "live" wire. "Hot" can also refer to temperature and "ive" can also refer to something living. A device to test which wire is "live" is called a "phase tester". The other meaning of phase is more technical, and deals with the timing of the voltage oscillations in the different wires. The split phase just means that the live circuit has been divided into two wires or "phases". Every trade or profession uses some jargon to simplify conversation between colleagues, not always to be taken literally.
    1
  74. Same thing. A dying battery is simply losing its capacity due to sulphating of the electrodes.
    1
  75. It doesn't "know", there is a potential difference and the current will flow across it if it can.
    1
  76. No. The two batteries have to be connected to form a circuit.
    1
  77. And some have plastic in places where you don't see it. No guarantee that the "ground" is actually in contact with the earth!
    1
  78. Yes it is. Most people think "cells" are in prisons or perhaps something to do with cellular phone networks.
    1
  79. InpPhysics you use electron flow for gases and also for electrochemistry. However for practical electronic design of circuits it makes no difference whatsoever and as the symbols for diodes and transistors have the arrows by convention, and most people can relate to positive "flowing" to negative, it seems slightly more intuitive. We can blame Benjamin Franklin for calling it wrong 150 years before the electron was discovered!
    1