Teaching Transistor Theory

[Cursitor Doom]

I've just had a pedagogic revelation! Here it is:

Transistor theory is much more effectively taught if explained as a
*discovery* (which it was) than as an invention (which it never was).
All these decades I've been wrestling with this conundrum and all it took
to clear things up was a handful of these amazing mushrooms. Yay! :-D
Okay, I was joking. But seriously, think about it. The concept is far
more effectively absorbed by students if presented this way.



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[John Larkin]

On Sat, 13 Jul 2019 22:07:56 -0000 (UTC), Cursitor Doom
<curd@notformail.com> wrote:

I've just had a pedagogic revelation! Here it is:

Transistor theory is much more effectively taught if explained as a
*discovery* (which it was) than as an invention (which it never was).
All these decades I've been wrestling with this conundrum and all it took
to clear things up was a handful of these amazing mushrooms. Yay! :-D
Okay, I was joking. But seriously, think about it. The concept is far
more effectively absorbed by students if presented this way.

What differnet would it make to teaching? Gravity was a discovery too.

The point-contact transistor was discovered while making deliberate
efforts to create a transistor.

The junction transistor was a deliberate invention.


--

John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc

lunatic fringe electronics

 

[Cursitor Doom]

On Sat, 13 Jul 2019 17:41:17 -0700, John Larkin wrote:

On Sat, 13 Jul 2019 22:07:56 -0000 (UTC), Cursitor Doom
curd@notformail.com> wrote:

The point-contact transistor was discovered while making deliberate
efforts to create a transistor.

The junction transistor was a deliberate invention.

Ahem..

"William Bradford Shockley Jr. (February 13, 1910 – August 12, 1989) was
an American physicist and inventor. Shockley was the manager of a
research group at Bell Labs that included John Bardeen and Walter
Brattain. The three scientists were jointly awarded the 1956 Nobel Prize
in Physics for 'their researches on semiconductors and their discovery of
the transistor effect.'"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shockley



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So they discovered oil and started building cars. Big deal.

And what's this approach bullshit ? Just explain how the thing works and that's that. Who Shockley was means jack shit. Where it happened means jack shit. When it happened means jack shit.

The principle that needs to be taught - bipolar transistor. You put current through the base emitter junction and it causes leakage from the collector.. ALL TRANSISTORS ARE COMMON EMITTER, only its orientation with respect to common is what changes.

Ohm's law, fuck all that sigma this and delta that. Your car has two headlights. They pull 3 amps each because they are four ohms with 12 volts on them. That adds up to 36 watts because watts are amps times volts. When you have two of them in parallel it is still 12 volts but now that pair of them is pulling six amps because two four ohms in parallel comes to 2 ohms. So 12 volts times 6 amps is 72 watts for the pair.

One paragraph. Who cares who Ohm was, or Watt, or Volta. Who cares how many columbs in an amp. Who even cares if you are paying attention to electrons or holes ? Suffice it to say there are two polarities.

Are you teaching someone how to design transistors ? I kinda doubt that.

One guy I taught uses it all the time at work, and makes more money than me, GRRRR.

I am an autodidact like 90%. I agree they teach wrong. Like 180Âş is the same as inversion. Try it with a sawtooth buddy. And they teach you about car batteries, the acid the ions and ll that shit. Fuck it, just charge it and shut up. When it doesn't take a charge either put epsom salts in it or buy a new one. Do I have to be a chemist to fix a Marantz amp ? (well actually there was this one...some other time)

Transistors. someone invented them. We got them. They work like such...and you order them online from like Digikey or Mouser, or actually Newark has been better on a couple of things. Bam. Want to know who figured it out ? I don't know the guy, and he is dead. That's it.

When i was younger I had what was called a science encyclopedia. One of those send you a volume a month. I read it cover to cover EXCEPT the bios on inventors etc. Later in life I got interested in that and read those. I found it interesting. for one, many innovators and inventors were either off the boat or first generation here. AND, even in the old days, some of them lived to be 80 or so. See, human life span has not gone up, the AVERAGE lifespan has. It does not mean the same thing, it just means less people get killed now. And now we're overpopulated, see, the old way was better.

 

[John Larkin]

On Sun, 14 Jul 2019 08:37:47 -0000 (UTC), Cursitor Doom
<curd@notformail.com> wrote:

On Sat, 13 Jul 2019 17:41:17 -0700, John Larkin wrote:

On Sat, 13 Jul 2019 22:07:56 -0000 (UTC), Cursitor Doom
curd@notformail.com> wrote:

The point-contact transistor was discovered while making deliberate
efforts to create a transistor.

The junction transistor was a deliberate invention.

Ahem..

"William Bradford Shockley Jr. (February 13, 1910 – August 12, 1989) was
an American physicist and inventor. Shockley was the manager of a
research group at Bell Labs that included John Bardeen and Walter
Brattain. The three scientists were jointly awarded the 1956 Nobel Prize
in Physics for 'their researches on semiconductors and their discovery of
the transistor effect.'"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shockley

I had lunch with Walter Brattain; nice old guy.

They were=trying to make a jfet
--

John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc
picosecond timing precision measurement

jlarkin att highlandtechnology dott com
http://www.highlandtechnology.com

 

[Cursitor Doom]

On Tue, 16 Jul 2019 10:13:05 -0700, John Larkin wrote:

> I had lunch with Walter Brattain; nice old guy.

Lucky old Walter. I'm *still* waiting for my invite but it seems I'm not
important or interesting enough!




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[John Larkin]

On Tue, 16 Jul 2019 17:46:48 -0000 (UTC), Cursitor Doom
<curd@notformail.com> wrote:

On Tue, 16 Jul 2019 10:13:05 -0700, John Larkin wrote:

I had lunch with Walter Brattain; nice old guy.

Lucky old Walter. I'm *still* waiting for my invite but it seems I'm not
important or interesting enough!

It's probably too late to have lunch with Walter. But I'll buy you
lunch or beer any time you're in the neighborhood.


--

John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc
picosecond timing precision measurement

jlarkin att highlandtechnology dott com
http://www.highlandtechnology.com

 

[Cursitor Doom]

On Tue, 16 Jul 2019 12:47:21 -0700, John Larkin wrote:

It's probably too late to have lunch with Walter. But I'll buy you lunch
or beer any time you're in the neighborhood.

Well, that was the bet, after all. But then you promptly moved lock,
stock and barrel to San Francisco! You know I'm homophobic, so that's why
you moved. All that upheaval and expense just to avoid buying me a burger
and a beer, you rotter! :-D




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the Usenet protocol. Reproduction in whole or part through other
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GBP10.00 per reproduction. Publication in this manner via non-Usenet
protocols constitutes acceptance of this condition.

 

[John Larkin]

On Tue, 16 Jul 2019 23:02:01 -0000 (UTC), Cursitor Doom
<curd@notformail.com> wrote:

On Tue, 16 Jul 2019 12:47:21 -0700, John Larkin wrote:

It's probably too late to have lunch with Walter. But I'll buy you lunch
or beer any time you're in the neighborhood.

Well, that was the bet, after all. But then you promptly moved lock,
stock and barrel to San Francisco! You know I'm homophobic, so that's why
you moved. All that upheaval and expense just to avoid buying me a burger
and a beer, you rotter! :-D

I've been in SF about 40 years. When did we make a bet? Did I lose?

The gay thing isn't a big deal here any more; it was wild when I
arrived, pre-AIDS, and I lived in the Castro back then. Now it has
breeders pushing baby buggies around.

We were having a beer at a lesbian bar on Courtland, Wild Side West,
and I stepped away from our table for a minute. A straight guy tried
to hit on Mo! She was kind of flattered.

My next-door neighbor is gay. He lets me use his chain saw.


--

John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc
picosecond timing precision measurement

jlarkin att highlandtechnology dott com
http://www.highlandtechnology.com

 

[Cursitor Doom]

On Wed, 17 Jul 2019 18:03:07 -0700, John Larkin wrote:

> I've been in SF about 40 years. When did we make a bet? Did I lose?

Late 1990s and yes, you did lose.

We were having a beer at a lesbian bar on Courtland, Wild Side West,
and I stepped away from our table for a minute. A straight guy tried to
hit on Mo! She was kind of flattered.

I assume you kicked his arse. - sorry- "ass"? I assume you kicked his
sorry ass?

> My next-door neighbor is gay. He lets me use his chain saw.

Some of them are fine. It's the 'in-yer-face' types that grind my gears.



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I never knew about all this Gay and Lesbian shit about transistors until now.

Maybe they're AC/DC.

 

[John Larkin]

On Sat, 20 Jul 2019 08:57:09 -0700 (PDT), jurb6006@gmail.com wrote:

I never knew about all this Gay and Lesbian shit about transistors until now.

Maybe they're AC/DC.

Bipolar.


--

John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc
picosecond timing precision measurement

jlarkin att highlandtechnology dott com
http://www.highlandtechnology.com

 

[Cursitor Doom]

On Wed, 24 Jul 2019 15:22:53 -0700, John Larkin wrote:

On Sat, 20 Jul 2019 08:57:09 -0700 (PDT), jurb6006@gmail.com wrote:

I never knew about all this Gay and Lesbian shit about transistors until
now.

Maybe they're AC/DC.

Bipolar.

Sexual ambiguity and a mood disorder to boot! They need therapy bad.





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This message may be freely reproduced without limit or charge only via
the Usenet protocol. Reproduction in whole or part through other
protocols, whether for profit or not, is conditional upon a charge of
GBP10.00 per reproduction. Publication in this manner via non-Usenet
protocols constitutes acceptance of this condition.

 

>They need therapy bad.

What about the JFETs ? They can go positive or negative. Sounds manic depressive or schitz to me.

 

[John Larkin]

On Fri, 26 Jul 2019 19:23:52 -0000 (UTC), Cursitor Doom
<curd@notformail.com> wrote:

On Wed, 24 Jul 2019 15:22:53 -0700, John Larkin wrote:

On Sat, 20 Jul 2019 08:57:09 -0700 (PDT), jurb6006@gmail.com wrote:

I never knew about all this Gay and Lesbian shit about transistors until
now.

Maybe they're AC/DC.

Bipolar.

Sexual ambiguity and a mood disorder to boot! They need therapy bad.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mu6t6vw6uov5vdp/bipolar.JPG?raw=1


--

John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc

lunatic fringe electronics

 

[Cursitor Doom]

On Sat, 27 Jul 2019 16:14:28 -0700, John Larkin wrote:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mu6t6vw6uov5vdp/bipolar.JPG?raw=1

Haha! Very good, John. But I recall you posted that several years ago.
Must have made an impression on me or I wouldn't remember it.




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This message may be freely reproduced without limit or charge only via
the Usenet protocol. Reproduction in whole or part through other
protocols, whether for profit or not, is conditional upon a charge of
GBP10.00 per reproduction. Publication in this manner via non-Usenet
protocols constitutes acceptance of this condition.

 

[~misfit~]

On 15/07/2019 1:52 AM, jurb6006@gmail.com wrote:

So they discovered oil and started building cars. Big deal.

And what's this approach bullshit ? Just explain how the thing works and that's that. Who Shockley was means jack shit. Where it happened means jack shit. When it happened means jack shit.

The principle that needs to be taught - bipolar transistor. You put current through the base emitter junction and it causes leakage from the collector. ALL TRANSISTORS ARE COMMON EMITTER, only its orientation with respect to common is what changes.

Ohm's law, fuck all that sigma this and delta that. Your car has two headlights. They pull 3 amps each because they are four ohms with 12 volts on them. That adds up to 36 watts because watts are amps times volts. When you have two of them in parallel it is still 12 volts but now that pair of them is pulling six amps because two four ohms in parallel comes to 2 ohms. So 12 volts times 6 amps is 72 watts for the pair.

One paragraph. Who cares who Ohm was, or Watt, or Volta. Who cares how many columbs in an amp. Who even cares if you are paying attention to electrons or holes ? Suffice it to say there are two polarities.

Are you teaching someone how to design transistors ? I kinda doubt that.

One guy I taught uses it all the time at work, and makes more money than me, GRRRR.

I am an autodidact like 90%. I agree they teach wrong. Like 180Âş is the same as inversion. Try it with a sawtooth buddy. And they teach you about car batteries, the acid the ions and ll that shit. Fuck it, just charge it and shut up. When it doesn't take a charge either put epsom salts in it or buy a new one. Do I have to be a chemist to fix a Marantz amp ? (well actually there was this one...some other time)

Transistors. someone invented them. We got them. They work like such...and you order them online from like Digikey or Mouser, or actually Newark has been better on a couple of things. Bam. Want to know who figured it out ? I don't know the guy, and he is dead. That's it.

When i was younger I had what was called a science encyclopedia. One of those send you a volume a month. I read it cover to cover EXCEPT the bios on inventors etc. Later in life I got interested in that and read those. I found it interesting. for one, many innovators and inventors were either off the boat or first generation

here.

AND, even in the old days, some of them lived to be 80 or so. See, human life span has not gone
up, the AVERAGE lifespan has. It does not mean the same thing, it just means less people get killed
now. And now we're overpopulated, see, the old way was better.

Where's "here"?
--
Shaun.

"Humans will have advanced a long, long way when religious belief has a cozy little classification
in the DSM"
David Melville

This is not an email and hasn't been checked for viruses by any half-arsed self-promoting software.