Pro EE Industry Jargon: What "unspoken/understood" terms did you struggle with?

[helius]

Electrical current is the effective direction of the movement of charge. Electrons are negatively charged, by definition, so the meaning of current cannot be "redefined" to be the movement of electrons. Besides, not all electrical currents are composed of moving electrons, that is a specific feature of metal wires and other n-enhanced conduction band materials. Many materials of interest to electrical engineers do not conduct by electrons.

Also see the discussion around "Does current flow through a capacitor"
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/blog/eevblog-486-does-current-flow-through-a-capacitor/

[Maxlor]

A term I struggled with for a long time is "IT". I resolved the struggle by eventually accepting that it's an exceedingly vague term without a precise definition

[helius]

IT is straightforward, I think. The same thing used to be called DP for data processing and involved lots of polyester suits.

[Brumby]

    To me it's like describing the left and right sides of an automobile, it's a pointless, useless descriptor without knowing what the intended perspective of the statement is. Is the statement made from inside the vehicle or out. On the other hand ask a sailor what side of a ship they are referring to and you will have a clear descriptive answer. So what does it take to get the EE community on board and away from idiots in cars? (hypothetically of course)

The automobile question is answered by convention - and it is the same convention used in referring to the human body.  Left and right are defined as being with respect to the occupant in the normal orientation, not the observer.

As for the diode/bridge rectifier question, it's a functional difference, not one of standards.

The notation for a single diode is based on the functional requirement of one side positive and the other negative (relatively speaking) for the device to conduct.

A bridge rectifier, however, IS NOT A SINGLE DEVICE.  It has four devices contained within a single package connected in a specific pattern to provide a specific function.  That function is to generate DC which, by common sense, is best designated by indicating which lead provides the positive connection and which lead provides the negative.  If you still feel it is incorrect labelling, please explain to me why there are two tilde characters (~) representing AC input on a "diode"?

In fact, a bridge rectifier is actually an integrated circuit.  Heaven help us if we start labelling pins on other ICs based on the circuit element attached to them... 

[Seekonk]

That is what half the people who visit EEVblog want.  Heaven to help them.

[magetoo]

What "unspoken/understood" terms did you struggle with?

Impedance.  As a mostly self-taught hobbyist I'm still not sure I really have a full understanding of everything that's implied, but at least some idea of what it means in the specific contexts where I see it come up.

Lots of things are like that - recognizing from context that this thing usually means the stuff here is doing that other thing.  I can't remember ever learning most of it, but apparently some of it stuck.

Which reminds me of something else: conventions for how schematics are drawn / laid out.  At one point it was all a jumble, but now it makes sense.  (And the schematics I tried to draw are just embarrassing and so obviously wrong.)

[magetoo]

I remember that cathode is (-) because I know cathode ray tubes shoot electrons to make pixels.

I thought I was the only one who thought of it like that.

But often the cathode is (+), which is why it can be confusing...

For those occasions, I simply flip the TV upside down and watch the image in the mirror, with the VCR running backwards.

Won't you get the colors inverted too, now that it shoots positrons instead?

[T3sl4co1l]

Which reminds me of something else: conventions for how schematics are drawn / laid out.  At one point it was all a jumble, but now it makes sense.  (And the schematics I tried to draw are just embarrassing and so obviously wrong.)

For anyone needing ideas, this might help:
http://seventransistorlabs.com/tmoranwms/Elec_Circuit_Rules.html
if a bit boring...

AoE2/3 explains it better, including with examples.

Tim

[jakeisprobably]

  The automobile question is answered by convention - and it is the same convention used in referring to the human body.  Left and right are defined as being with respect to the occupant in the normal orientation, not the observer.

  This is true in the context most people are accustomed to refering to things like every day directions etc. I spent a few years doing autobody repairs mostly for used car dealerships. When a car Porter brings a vehicle to the shop for repair and I had to ascertain exactly what the lot manager did or did not want to repair over the phone, assumed convention loses accounts aka gets you fired. I learned the hard way. There is no right or left side of a vehicle only driver's and passenger's side descriptives. Assume= (make an)ass(out of)u&me.
 
  With the diode vs rectifier terminals, isn't the problem simply referring to the part as a "diode rectifier" in a way that directly associates it with the function of a single diode? It's an Integrated Circuit Rectifier not a diode rectifier. Terminology ambiguity problem solved right?

[Synthetase]

I learned the hard way. There is no right or left side of a vehicle only driver's and passenger's side descriptives. Assume= (make an)ass(out of)u&me.

Surely that makes the assumption of a left-hand drive vehicle though? On the subject, I've never heard anyone use any other term for the different driving positions, it's always been either right- or left-hand drive.

Apparently naval pilots use right and left to refer to their aircraft (from the occupant's perspective, facing forward) as using port or starboard can be confused with talking about the ship.

[dmills]

Interesting, I had thought port and starboard were pretty much unambiguous (That being rather the point), but I guess that ships crews get so used to it in terms of their own ship that there could possibly be confusion.

The other fun one  for this is the pronunciation of the phonetic alphabet, "Niner" rather then "Nine" for example to differentiate from "Nein" (German for No), the whole thing is actually very well thought out.

Regards, Dan.