Author Topic: "LED's" or "Lead's" boxes or -/\/\/\-  (Read 25587 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline raspberrypiTopic starter

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • !
  • Posts: 358
  • Country: us
"LED's" or "Lead's" boxes or -/\/\/\-
« on: November 21, 2016, 10:12:06 pm »
Is this a uk vs american thing? Leads versus saying L,E,Ds? A kid in my third grade class would call them "leads" and piss me off because he thought he was smarter then me. Mrs. Johnson and her third grade class knew otherwise.

But eevblog Dave, bigclive.com and other east hemisphere, crazy right hand drivers draw their resisters as boxes. Drives me nut because I was always taught that boxes were for odd ball parts and resisters were -\/\/\- zigzags. ITS AN L-E-D AND A ZIGZAG GOD DAMN IT!!!!!  ;D



(the 's were fixed. I type faster then I think.)
« Last Edit: November 21, 2016, 11:48:08 pm by raspberrypi »
I'm legally blind so sometimes I ask obvious questions, but its because I can't see well.
 

Offline NottheDan

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 281
  • Country: gb
Re: "LED's" or "Lead's" boxes or -/\/\/\-
« Reply #1 on: November 21, 2016, 10:33:48 pm »
1930 called and wants it zigzags back. ;)
 

Offline Richard Crowley

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 4317
  • Country: us
  • KJ7YLK
Re: "LED's" or "Lead's" boxes or -/\/\/\-
« Reply #2 on: November 21, 2016, 10:37:27 pm »
The boxes vs. zig-zag lines is a European vs. US thing.
On one hand the open box allows you to print the value (and/or designator) inside the box.
OTOH, they seem to have several different components that all use a rectangle like that, so it is sometimes ambiguous.

Apparently pronouncing the acronym for Light Emitting Diode as "lead" is more common in non-English speaking circles.
In English context, it is indistinguishable from the word for the heavy metal, so many people prefer to pronounce it: "L-E-D"
Of course, if you are watching a YouTube video about the light-emitting components, there should be no ambiguity.
 

Offline IanB

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 11790
  • Country: us
Re: "LED's" or "Lead's" boxes or -/\/\/\-
« Reply #3 on: November 21, 2016, 10:54:37 pm »
Is this a uk vs american thing? Lead's versus saying L,E,D's? A kid in my third grade class would call them "lead's" and piss me off because he thought he was smarter then me. Mrs. Johnson and her third grade class knew otherwise.

But eevblog Dave, bigclive.com and other east hemisphere, crazy right hand drivers draw their resisters as boxes. Drives me nut because I was always taught that boxes were for odd ball parts and resisters were -\/\/\- zigzags. ITS AN L-E-D AND A ZIGZAG GOD DAMN IT!!!!!  ;D

You are allowed to choose. It is a matter of personal preference (fashion, if you like). My cultural background is Britain, and I prefer to say L-E-D. It's easy enough to say and I see no reason to abbreviate it to "led".

Likewise, I grew up with resistors being drawn as zig-zag lines. That's how everyone did it back in the old days. Today I still draw them that way if I am sketching a circuit because it is easier to draw them that way by hand. Everyone recognizes what the symbol means, so what's the big deal?

In short, live and let live, and don't fuss. Or I'll start asking you about the correct way to pronounce advertisement.
 

Offline DmitryL

  • Regular Contributor
  • *
  • Posts: 242
  • Country: gb
Re: "LED's" or "Lead's" boxes or -/\/\/\-
« Reply #4 on: November 21, 2016, 10:55:31 pm »
Is this a uk vs american thing? Lead's versus saying L,E,D's? A kid in my third grade class would call them "lead's" and piss me off because he thought he was smarter then me. Mrs. Johnson and her third grade class knew otherwise.

Hmm.. On the subject of glass house and stones...
Is it just a rednecky thing to use apostrophe where it shouldn't be?
As far as I'm aware, every more or less literate kid knows that "LED's"  means:
- posesive case, e.g. "This is an LED's pin" -> "This pin belongs to LED"
- "LED is" or "LED has" e.g. "LED's dead", "LED's died"

While "LEDs" represents a plural form of "LED". I.e. "I have a lot of LEDs in my box"




 
The following users thanked this post: Zbig

Offline Halcyon

  • Global Moderator
  • *****
  • Posts: 5629
  • Country: au
Re: "LED's" or "Lead's" boxes or -/\/\/\-
« Reply #5 on: November 21, 2016, 10:59:24 pm »
Hmm.. On the subject of glass house and stones...
Is it just a rednecky thing to use apostrophe where it shouldn't be?

That annoys me too! A good rule of thumb is if you replace the apostrophe with the word "is" and it doesn't make sense or you're not using it to show possession, then it doesn't belong (exceptions apply).
 

Offline timb

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 2536
  • Country: us
  • Pretentiously Posting Polysyllabic Prose
    • timb.us
Re: "LED's" or "Lead's" boxes or -/\/\/\-
« Reply #6 on: November 21, 2016, 11:18:44 pm »
Resistors in IEC standard are drawn as a box, no matter it is a commonwealth country or other countries adopting IEC symbols.
L.E.D. vs lead is as pointless as S.Q.L. vs sequel, or N.A.S.A. vs nesa/nasa.
If you are pissed off by a 9 year old kid just because he doesn't call it exactly the way you do, you better find another job before you taught these kids to be dictators like you.

It's Microsoft Sequel and Postgres Ess Que El. :D

Anyone who actually says the individual letters ("N A S A") instead of saying just NASA is a tool. (My grandfather worked at NASA Langley for 25 years, everybody there called it NASA.)
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic; e.g., Cheez Whiz, Hot Dogs and RF.
 
The following users thanked this post: tooki

Offline rrinker

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 2046
  • Country: us
Re: "LED's" or "Lead's" boxes or -/\/\/\-
« Reply #7 on: November 21, 2016, 11:38:08 pm »
 NASA with letters is the car people, NASA pronounced is the space agency.

I still draw my resistors as squiggles when hand drawing circuits. Loops for inductors. I say the letters LED, if I hear "lead" I am expecting to hear "zeppelin" after it.

 
The following users thanked this post: tooki

Offline Brumby

  • Supporter
  • ****
  • Posts: 12288
  • Country: au
Re: "LED's" or "Lead's" boxes or -/\/\/\-
« Reply #8 on: November 22, 2016, 03:10:54 am »
I still draw my resistors as squiggles when hand drawing circuits. Loops for inductors.
Same

Quote
I say the letters LED, if I hear "lead" I am expecting to hear "zeppelin" after it.
... or 'flashing' (building material), shielding (radiology), pipe (plumbing), weight (fishing - or that goldbrick in the office) ...

but I like your option better.
 

Offline Alex Eisenhut

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 3330
  • Country: ca
  • Place text here.
Re: "LED's" or "Lead's" boxes or -/\/\/\-
« Reply #9 on: November 22, 2016, 03:57:29 am »
Hmm.. On the subject of glass house and stones...
Is it just a rednecky thing to use apostrophe where it shouldn't be?

That annoys me too! A good rule of thumb is if you replace the apostrophe with the word "is" and it doesn't make sense or you're not using it to show possession, then it doesn't belong (exceptions apply).

Or it's vs. it is.
Hoarder of 8-bit Commodore relics and 1960s Tektronix 500-series stuff. Unconventional interior decorator.
 

Offline sleemanj

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 3020
  • Country: nz
  • Professional tightwad.
    • The electronics hobby components I sell.
Re: "LED's" or "Lead's" boxes or -/\/\/\-
« Reply #10 on: November 22, 2016, 05:01:54 am »
Language is weird, we all have our preferences, for me it's

L.E.D
S.Q.L
B.J.T

but...

Fet
J.Fet
Mos.Fet
J.Peg
Gif (not Jif)

And I use zig zag resistors. 


~~~
EEVBlog Members - get yourself 10% discount off all my electronic components for sale just use the Buy Direct links and use Coupon Code "eevblog" during checkout.  Shipping from New Zealand, international orders welcome :-)
 

Offline Halcyon

  • Global Moderator
  • *****
  • Posts: 5629
  • Country: au
Re: "LED's" or "Lead's" boxes or -/\/\/\-
« Reply #11 on: November 22, 2016, 08:08:50 am »
It's Microsoft Sequel and Postgres Ess Que El. :D

Please don't start that argument ;-) It will end in tears/bloodshed.

I will admit though that "sequel" makes me cringe because of a complete douchebag boss I had years ago who said it constantly. So for me it's "S-Q-L".

Also, it's "S-A-P" not "Sap". ;-)
 

Online Zero999

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 19345
  • Country: gb
  • 0999
Re: "LED's" or "Lead's" boxes or -/\/\/\-
« Reply #12 on: November 22, 2016, 08:53:24 am »
The boxes vs. zig-zag lines is a European vs. US thing.
On one hand the open box allows you to print the value (and/or designator) inside the box.
OTOH, they seem to have several different components that all use a rectangle like that, so it is sometimes ambiguous.
One of the problem with zig-zags is they can be ambiguous on hastily hand draw schematic: they can be confused with inductors.

It's not a problem on printed schematics though.
 

Offline steve30

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 733
  • Country: england
    • Stephen Coates' Homepage
Re: "LED's" or "Lead's" boxes or -/\/\/\-
« Reply #13 on: November 22, 2016, 12:21:25 pm »
I was taught to use boxes for resistors and that's what I normally use. But I'm not fussed what other people use. My only problem is that a badly drawn zigzag resistor can look like a badly drawn inductor and vice versa.

As for led vs L.E.D., I tend to say which ever springs to mind first.
 

Offline eugenenine

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 865
  • Country: us
Re: "LED's" or "Lead's" boxes or -/\/\/\-
« Reply #14 on: November 22, 2016, 12:34:01 pm »
Its the inconsistency of the English language.  NASA with two vowels separated by a single non-vowel should, be the long a so it should be pronounces naasa but its an exception to the rule and pronounces as the short nassa.

I used to drive my English teacher crazy asking about all the exceptions to the rules.  But with all the exceptions it was harder to write a program to do your work.

Could be worse though, at least you don't have to listen to everyone who went to Walmarts.  "ohh you went to more than one, why not get what you needed at the first one?"

 

Offline mc172

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 487
  • Country: gb
Re: "LED's" or "Lead's" boxes or -/\/\/\-
« Reply #15 on: November 22, 2016, 12:48:46 pm »
It's Microsoft Sequel and Postgres Ess Que El. :D

That'd be "queue", wouldn't it?
 

Offline timb

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 2536
  • Country: us
  • Pretentiously Posting Polysyllabic Prose
    • timb.us
Re: "LED's" or "Lead's" boxes or -/\/\/\-
« Reply #16 on: November 22, 2016, 01:05:53 pm »
It's Microsoft Sequel and Postgres Ess Que El. :D

That'd be "queue", wouldn't it?

Touché.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic; e.g., Cheez Whiz, Hot Dogs and RF.
 
The following users thanked this post: alexanderbrevig

Offline Ysjoelfir

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 542
  • Country: de
Re: "LED's" or "Lead's" boxes or -/\/\/\-
« Reply #17 on: November 22, 2016, 02:43:29 pm »
I personally prefer a mixture of US and IEC symbols, even though my teachers at university tend to kill me when I draw the resistors with the zigzag line and inductors with the black box.. I do this mainly because I tend to have bad drawing skills, meaning, a square resistor wouldn`t be a square but more like some sort of smashed, mushy thing which could be identified as either a resistor, an inductor or even a fuse. So I write the zigzag line to tell "that is a resistor" and use the box for inductors - because the loop-inductor can be quite simmilar to a badly drawn zigzag-resistor...
What I really hate is the difference between all those logic gates, I can`t really focus on one way to draw them, switching between styles whenever i feel like doing so...
Regarding the LED-Thing: I prefer L-E-D. I also prefer to say Serial ATA and not Sata(n).
Greetings, Kai \ Ysjoelfir
 

Offline CJay

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 4136
  • Country: gb
Re: "LED's" or "Lead's" boxes or -/\/\/\-
« Reply #18 on: November 22, 2016, 03:13:39 pm »
I quite like the Elektor house style (which is I think generally IEC) for schematic symbols and tend to hand draw my own schematics with them but separate out logic elements to the American style just because they make sense to me at a glance as I was taught those as a teenager.

I'm sure many people will be cringing but they're my schematics and I don't generally share them unless I've used a CAD program to make them human readable  ;D
 

Offline PointyOintment

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 327
  • Country: ca
  • ↑ I scanned my face
Re: "LED's" or "Lead's" boxes or -/\/\/\-
« Reply #19 on: November 22, 2016, 03:41:30 pm »
I switch back and forth between boxes and zigzags, depending on which one I find easier to draw that day.

LED: "ell ee dee"
SQL: "sequel"
NASA: "nassa" (never heard anything else)
queue: "kweew" (think about it—you won't go back)
GIF: with a hard G
SATA: to rhyme with NASA
pasta: "pass-ta", not "poss-ta" like the Americans say


I personally prefer a mixture of US and IEC symbols, even though my teachers at university tend to kill me when I draw the resistors with the zigzag line and inductors with the black box.. […] So I write the zigzag line to tell "that is a resistor" and use the box for inductors

Box inductor symbol? I don't think I've seen it, and Google isn't helping.
I refuse to use AD's LTspice or any other "free" software whose license agreement prohibits benchmarking it (which implies it's really bad) or publicly disclosing the existence of the agreement. Fortunately, I haven't agreed to that one, and those terms are public already.
 

Offline rolycat

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 1101
  • Country: gb
Re: "LED's" or "Lead's" boxes or -/\/\/\-
« Reply #20 on: November 22, 2016, 03:57:31 pm »
queue: "kweew" (think about it—you won't go back)
I thought about it, and felt nauseous. Your pronunciation even sounds like the noise you make when you smell something nasty  :P

Quote
SATA: to rhyme with NASA
Wouldn't it be better to rhyme it with 'patter'?

Quote
pasta: "pass-ta", not "poss-ta" like the Americans say


I personally prefer a mixture of US and IEC symbols, even though my teachers at university tend to kill me when I draw the resistors with the zigzag line and inductors with the black box.. […] So I write the zigzag line to tell "that is a resistor" and use the box for inductors

Box inductor symbol? I don't think I've seen it, and Google isn't helping.
International symbol, according to Sparkfun's handy guide.
 

Offline AlxDroidDev

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 471
  • Country: br
    • Arduino Web Brasil
Re: "LED's" or "Lead's" boxes or -/\/\/\-
« Reply #21 on: November 22, 2016, 04:03:59 pm »
LED: "ell ee dee"
SQL: "sequel"
NASA: "nassa" (never heard anything else)
queue: "kweew" (think about it—you won't go back)
GIF: with a hard G
SATA: to rhyme with NASA
pasta: "pass-ta", not "poss-ta" like the Americans say

You forgot one:

    SCSI = "scuzzy"

    on the other hand, IDE = "eye dee ee"
"The nice thing about standards is that you have so many to choose from." (Andrew S. Tanenbaum)
 

Offline eugenenine

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 865
  • Country: us
Re: "LED's" or "Lead's" boxes or -/\/\/\-
« Reply #22 on: November 22, 2016, 08:25:09 pm »
LED: "ell ee dee"
SQL: "sequel"
NASA: "nassa" (never heard anything else)
queue: "kweew" (think about it—you won't go back)
GIF: with a hard G
SATA: to rhyme with NASA
pasta: "pass-ta", not "poss-ta" like the Americans say

You forgot one:

    SCSI = "scuzzy"

    on the other hand, IDE = "eye dee ee"

and daata and datta
 
The following users thanked this post: TiN

Offline JPortici

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 3452
  • Country: it
Re: "LED's" or "Lead's" boxes or -/\/\/\-
« Reply #23 on: November 22, 2016, 08:26:20 pm »
i pronounce "lead" in my language, which is how i would naturally say LED. Otherwise i should say "Elle - E - Dì" which is not practical at all.
However, L-E-Ds when i speak english.
BJT,MOSFET,.. that's wasy. it's exactly the same!

Explain to the kid that's not correct as it's an acronym. he'll eventually understand the value of doing things correctly... or not
 

Offline CJay

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 4136
  • Country: gb
Re: "LED's" or "Lead's" boxes or -/\/\/\-
« Reply #24 on: November 22, 2016, 08:37:30 pm »
Sodder and solder.

To a British English speaker, well, it's either a regional contraction of Sod Her or, yeah, let's not go there on an electronics forum
 


Share me

Digg  Facebook  SlashDot  Delicious  Technorati  Twitter  Google  Yahoo
Smf