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What do you consider to be the biggest technological advancement for electrical components? | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 68 comments | Search Discussion
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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Hartree on Saturday November 17 2018, @10:44PM (5 children)

    by Hartree (195) on Saturday November 17 2018, @10:44PM (#763234)

    I'll go more fundamental. Conductors. (AKA wires. And, by contrast, insulators.)

    For millennia, electric phenomena such as sparks, charged amber attracting bits of paper or whatnot had known. But, until electrical conduction was figured out charges weren't known to flow the way we take for granted. Nearly all electrical devices depend on this and are derivative of it. Diodes, resistors, etc are all items that conduct, but in nonstandard ways like having more resistance to flow or only conducting well in one direction.

    Stephen Gray found this, but isn't well known today, like Franklin and others who came later.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Gray_(scientist) [wikipedia.org]

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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Sunday November 18 2018, @12:45AM (3 children)

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Sunday November 18 2018, @12:45AM (#763270)

    RNA, without RNA no DNA, without DNA no life, without life no intelligent life, without intelligent life no electrical engineering.

    --
    🌻🌻 [google.com]

    • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Wednesday November 28 2018, @09:23PM (2 children)

      by maxwell demon (1608) on Wednesday November 28 2018, @09:23PM (#767504) Journal

      The big bang. Without the big bang, no universe, and thus no matter which could form things like RNA, DNA, intelligent life and electrical engineers.

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.

      • (Score: 1) by DECbot on Tuesday December 11 2018, @06:25PM (1 child)

        by DECbot (832) on Tuesday December 11 2018, @06:25PM (#772977) Journal

        Are you specifically excluding electrical engineers from intelligent life or did that just happen by subconsciously?

        --
        cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base

        • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Tuesday December 11 2018, @10:29PM

          by maxwell demon (1608) on Tuesday December 11 2018, @10:29PM (#773137) Journal

          Neither. It is you who reads that into it.

          --
          The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 20 2018, @07:50PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 20 2018, @07:50PM (#764371)

    eh? good point. also add "shape of conductor". for a coiled conductor you get induction.
    for a conductor in a head-on collision (flattend) you get (sort of) a capacitor ...
    so shapes matter?