Whaaat? Electricity does not flow at the speed of light?
OH THE HUMANITY!!!!
Why is electricity so hard to understand? (1989)
21–30 of 216 posts
Re: Why is electricity so hard to understand? (1989)
#22Could someone write the same kind of article for chemistry ? That would help me to accept the fact that I didn't get it at all :-) Oh, while you're at it : accounting :-)
Accounting in 8 steps,
1. Memorize this: Assets + Expenses = Liabilities + Capital + Income
2. Everything is positive, no negative numbers!
3. For every transaction, Total Debits = Total Credits
4. "Credit" is source of money, "debit" is destination of money
5. Assets and expenses increase with debits
6. Liabilities, capital, and income increase with credits
7. Expenses and income may only be increased (debited & credited respectively)
8. At the end of the accounting period, distribute income less expenses to capital accounts
Example:
Your business buys a property for 90k with 50k cash down and 10k closing costs.
Assets: 90k house (debit), 50k cash (credit)
Expenses: 10k closing cost (debit)
Liabilities: 50k mortgage (credit)
Total Credits: 100k
Total Debits: 100k
Re: Why is electricity so hard to understand? (1989)
#23I think the main reason is that we can't physically interact with it with our hands. We don't play with it as children, the same way we do running water, throwing rocks, etc. Anything that you can't manipulate or play around with is very hard to develop an intuitive sense of. It takes a lot of study and imagination.
I a sense, I DID play with electricity as a kid. My father was an Electrical Engineer and a Ham Radio operator, so we had "stuff" around the house. I learned to solder at a young age. Some time ago, I realized that one of the best toys I had as a kid was the controller for my HO train set. It had a Speed (voltage) lever and a Forward/Reverse lever. Basically, it was a safe, variable voltage DC power supply. I could play with switches and flashlight bulbs and small motors and learn how they work. I've recently gotten back into Electronics as a hobby and I'm having all sorts of fun with Arduinos and Pis and such.
Re: Why is electricity so hard to understand? (1989)
#24I think more than half the time I spent earning my EE degree has been spent unlearning the intuitive (but wrong) things that I was liberally taught. I was fortunate enough to have an exceptional Physics teacher in high school, who managed to avoid a lot of the bullshit that less fortunate students were fed; sadly, I compensated that with some of my own (misguided) self-study. This experience also taught me to activel…
I got it taught about 3 or 4 times, and every time I understood it less.
In middle school they told me, it's electrons moving at the speed of light through a conductor.
In high school they told me, no no, they don't move at the speed of light, just when one electron enters the conductor, another one on the other side will leave the conductor, like with peas in a straw. And this enter/leaf is at the speed of light.
At university they told me, no no, you got it all wrong, it's about the electro static and electro dynamic fields which stand orthogonal on each other and produce electro magnetic waves... what?!
I seriously have no idea anymore.
Re: Why is electricity so hard to understand? (1989)
#25I think more than half the time I spent earning my EE degree has been spent unlearning the intuitive (but wrong) things that I was liberally taught. I was fortunate enough to have an exceptional Physics teacher in high school, who managed to avoid a lot of the bullshit that less fortunate students were fed; sadly, I compensated that with some of my own (misguided) self-study. This experience also taught me to activel…
I got it taught about 3 or 4 times, and every time I understood it less. In middle school they told me, it's electrons moving at the speed of light through a conductor. In high school they told me, no no, they don't move at the speed of light, just when one electron enters the conductor, another one on the other side will leave the conductor, like with peas in a straw. And this enter/leaf is at the speed of light. At…
Well someone fucked you up because current is defined as the flow of positive charges just like the electric field direction is defined as the action of a positive test charge. Thanks Ben (Franklin)
Re: Why is electricity so hard to understand? (1989)
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
The issue with chemistry is that you need to develop a "feel" (chemical intuition) for a lot of topics. A lot of chemistry taught in undergrad, like Organic, cannot always be neatly explained or solved with an equation. On top of that there seems to be as many exceptions to rules as there are rules themselves.
A lot of stuff taught in undergrad is also flat out wrong, especially anything to do with orbitals.
Exactly what I was thinking at that time. My conclusion was that they were forcing me to admit tons of things while at the same time confusing what could be understood logically and what had to be accepted as is.
I feel better :-)
Re: Why is electricity so hard to understand? (1989)
#27The real question is, why is this website so hard to understand? Publishing what looks like someones personal notebook isn't helping the cause here.
Re: Why is electricity so hard to understand? (1989)
#28Could someone write the same kind of article for chemistry ? That would help me to accept the fact that I didn't get it at all :-) Oh, while you're at it : accounting :-)
The issue with chemistry is that you need to develop a "feel" (chemical intuition) for a lot of topics. A lot of chemistry taught in undergrad, like Organic, cannot always be neatly explained or solved with an equation. On top of that there seems to be as many exceptions to rules as there are rules themselves.
Physics and math also lean heavily on intuition; you might have a clear cut path through the equations when you have the solution in front of you, but there's often no "playbook" that you can follow mechanically to get what you want from the fundamental equations.
Re: Why is electricity so hard to understand? (1989)
#29Could someone write the same kind of article for chemistry ? That would help me to accept the fact that I didn't get it at all :-) Oh, while you're at it : accounting :-)
Accounting in 8 steps, 1. Memorize this: Assets + Expenses = Liabilities + Capital + Income 2. Everything is positive, no negative numbers! 3. For every transaction, Total Debits = Total Credits 4. "Credit" is source of money, "debit" is destination of money 5. Assets and expenses increase with debits 6. Liabilities, capital, and income increase with credits 7. Expenses and income may only be increased (debited & cre…
> "Credit" is source of money, "debit" is destination of money
But it gets even more confusing when they say "we credited your account" or "your account was debited".
Re: Why is electricity so hard to understand? (1989)
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
Accounting in 8 steps, 1. Memorize this: Assets + Expenses = Liabilities + Capital + Income 2. Everything is positive, no negative numbers! 3. For every transaction, Total Debits = Total Credits 4. "Credit" is source of money, "debit" is destination of money 5. Assets and expenses increase with debits 6. Liabilities, capital, and income increase with credits 7. Expenses and income may only be increased (debited & cre…
> "Credit" is source of money, "debit" is destination of money But it gets even more confusing when they say "we credited your account" or "your account was debited".
Yes, that is a prime source of confusion for those terms! The problem is all about perspective.
From the perspective of the bank, your account is a liability, so when they deposit into it, then its value increases, hence "credit".
When they say "your account" they actually mean "the account where we track how much money we owe you".
From your business's perspective, your bank account is an asset, so when they deposit into it, then its value increases, hence "debit".