| ELECTRONICS—PLAYING
WITH THE FORCE
Today we know of four forces: electromagnetism, gravity,
the strong nuclear force, and the weak nuclear force. That's
it. Today four forces make a universe.
Human beings love to tinker with things and push back the
boundaries of limitation. Forces are fair game for this impulse
to explore. We have learned how to manage and modify our environment
to a remarkable degree: fire, tools, explosives, architecture,
optics, navigation, metallurgy, internal combustion, flight,
frozen food, nylon, television, atomic energy, space travel...Awesome
accomplishments, and just about all of them, with the exception
of
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technologies that split or fuse atoms or use radioactivity,
involve the manipulation of the electric force in some manner.
The electric force provides structure to everyday objects,
energy for most of our activities, and the flexibility to
create complex circuitry to contour, manage, and exploit electrons
to make them do our bidding.
That’s what this course is all about. Students work
slowly and systematically with electronic components and meters
to build circuits, measure and monitor electric properties,
and construct meaningful explanations for the powerful interactions
taking place in their systems.
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