Note: Because there is so much overlap between the lessons, I’ve combined the questions and put them all in one place – right here on this page.
Let’s see how you did! If you didn’t get a few of these, don’t let it stress you out – it just means you need to play with more experiments in this area. We’re all works in progress, and we have our entire lifetime to puzzle together the mysteries of the universe!
Here’s printer-friendly versions of the exercises and answers for you to print out: Simply click here for printable questions and answers.
Answers:
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- D-cell battery, AC wall adapter.
- 1-amp power supply wouldn’t light it up (and may damage the power supply), and the 1000-amp power supply would work just fine.
- A transformer is a component that trades volts for amps and vice-versa. If I put 100 volts at 1 amp into a transformer, it might put out 10 volts at 10 amps.
- green-glue-red-gold
- Connect the resistors together in series.
- Capacitors are used for lots of different things. They can be part of a “filter” circuit that removes unwanted electrical “blips” or signals. For example, radios use capacitors. You see, a radio initially doesn’t receive just one FM radio station. No, it receives ALL the stations in your area at once. Then, it has a filter circuit using capacitors to filter out all of the stations except the one that you have the radio tuned to. Capacitors are also used to let AC current pass through them, but not DC.
- Connect the capacitors together in parallel.
- AC comes from your wall outlet and DC comes from a battery.
- A diode is like a one-way valve for electricity. It lets current go through it one way, but not the other. They have two leads, called the anode and the cathode.
- A common type of programmable chip is called a microprocessor. These are the “brain” of a typical home computer. A cousin of the microprocessor is the microcontroller. A microcontroller is like a whole computer on a chip.
- An integrated circuit, sometimes called an “IC” or a “chip” (as in “computer chip”) is a complete circuit that has been miniaturized and put into a small plastic block with wires coming out of it.
- Not usually. In our breadboard circuits, however, you may substitute the NPN 2N2222A for a 2N3904. You may also substitute the PNP 2N4403 for a 2N3906. In most cases, the packaging on the outside makes it seem like you can swap one for another, but what’s inside is radically different. (Some that you’ll find aren’t even transistors, but only look like it!)
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