electronics and oscilloscopesIntegrated Circuits, or ICs, are amazing devices in which tiny transistors (which you haven’t learned about yet), diodes, capacitors, and resistors are connected together with thin metal films to make elaborate circuits. The techniques for making ICs have improved so much in the past few years that we have advanced from having ICs to VLSIs (very large-scale integrated circuits). VLSIs have up to a million circuit elements in them and can do very complex things. When an IC is bundled together and put in a single package, it is often encased in black plastic that has two rows of connectors on it. Thus, an IC tends to look for all the world like a bug in the centipede or millipede family. You will be using several types of “bugs” in this unit.

Electronics is the sub-field of electricity that deals with the information contained in electrical signals, such as those that produce sound from a loudspeaker, a TV picture, or memory states in a computer.

            This unit is intended to provide you with a brief introduction to electronics, including some of the devices used in circuits and some of the ways you can transform electrical signals by designing and constructing circuits.  In the first part of this unit you will learn to use an oscilloscope, which is one of the most basic measuring instruments used in electronics to measure voltage changes.  Next you will explore analog electronics by constructing a simple amplifier to boost a weak electrical signal so that it becomes an audible sound when attached to a loudspeaker.  Then you will begin an exploration of some of the digital electronic components that provide the basis for the modern digital computer.  Finally you will use digital electronic components to build a stopwatch.  The projects in this unit might stimulate you to learn more about electronics on your own or to take a course in electronics.

This is an oscilloscope. It is an instrument who most usual application is to give a visual display of time varying voltages.

Integrated Circuits, or ICs, are amazing devices in which tiny transistors (which you haven’t learned about yet), diodes, capacitors, and resistors are connected together with thin metal films to make elaborate circuits.  The techniques for making ICs have improved so much in the past few years that we have advanced from having ICs to VLSIs (very large-scale integrated circuits).  VLSIs have up to a million circuit elements in them and can do very complex things.  When an IC is bundled together and put in a single package, it is often encased in black plastic that has two rows of connectors on it.  Thus, an IC tends to look for all the world like a bug in the centipede or millipede family.  You will be using several types of “bugs” in this unit.

This is a function generator using a speaker to generate sound with regards to an alternating currant.

By changing the frequency you can make the beat drop. Any physics 4B student, upon completing the class, is applicable to be a professional DJ and or hiphop musician artist, or what ever they are called.

These are subjectective observations from attaching the function generator to the speaker.

This oscilloscope is displaying a wave function such as sine or cosine.

this oscilloscope is displaying a square function. It is for squares.

When the x and y values are crossed, it can become a ring when the frequency and the period match up.

You will be given a mystery box with several terminals.  You need to make a diagram on your whiteboard showing what each of these terminals produces by making measurements with the oscilloscope.   Take a picture of this diagram for your Blog.