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Isaac Newton, Wikipedia tells us, "is widely recognised as one of the most influential scientists of all time and as a key figure in the scientific revolution." George Boole (1815-1864) was undoubtedly also one of the most influential scientists of all time, and a key figure in the digital revolution. Both men were from Lincolnshire, England, and had Unitarian leanings, which impacted their career paths in the Anglican dominated world of their eras. Furthermore, both made key mental breakthroughs while enjoying fresh air outdoors.
...
Boole's came early in 1833, when he was only 17, while walking across a field in Doncaster:"He relates that the thought flashed upon him suddenly, but he laid it aside for many years. The thought however smouldered in his subconscious and became an integral part of his main ambition in life—to explain the logic of human thought."
Boolean algebra and Boolean logic are very well known today, and form the backbone of electrical engineering and computer science. Indeed anyone who even casually searches the Internet , say for "Michael Jackson" the late beer and whiskey expert rather than the singer and dancer of the same name, knows how to make judicious use of AND, OR and NOT.
See, too: http://georgeboole.com/
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 05 2015, @07:53AM
To be fair, they did specify "digital logic".
If I want to further nit-pick, I can point out that Electrical circuits typically deal with more than 50V or 200VA (below that is the realm of electronics).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 05 2015, @08:07AM
"Electronics" means that you are dealing with semiconductors, vacuum tubes, or gas-filled tubes.
Voltage levels have nothing to do with it.
Thanks for playing.
-- gewg_
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 05 2015, @10:23AM
OK, I stand corrected.
I had no idea that Arc rectifiers [wikipedia.org], while cool, were considered electronic.
..Reviewing several pages about them, I do not actually see the "electronic" term used. Articles like these [electricstuff.co.uk] are from Electrical magazines.
I suspect I was mostly right, but missed some nuance since tube-based circuits are so rare now-days. Electrical circuits move power around, while electronic circuits move signals around. Is that a fair distinction?
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 05 2015, @11:12AM
You're still trying to qualify it according to -what- the circuit does--instead of HOW it does it.
An electronic circuit uses 1 or more active devices.
I thought of another active device:
If you go back a bunch of decades, theatrical lighting was dimmed using saturable-core reactors (an inductor with a bias winding that gets fed DC).
Ferro-resonant transformers have been used for ages for AC voltage regulation.
They're kinda similar.
-- gewg_
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 05 2015, @10:43PM
I think you got modded troll because making a distinction over how a circuit does something is not as useful as making a distinction over what a circuit does.
I try to make a distinction because I studied electronic, than electrical circuits. However, even with my lack of knowledge in the area, I suspect many Electrical distribution networks now use active elements (if only for switching passive elements in and out).