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Do you think an LED is a resistor?
MK14:
Bold and font size change, done by me.
--- Quote from: Sredni on April 21, 2024, 01:28:31 pm ---I am curious. How many of you people think an LED is a resistor? I should add: from the point of view of circuit theory, not from that of technology and underlying physics.
(This question originates from a question in another forum, where polls are not possible).
--- End quote ---
You specifically said "resistor", in the poll.
So you can't start changing the "resistor" to other things, such as "non-linear" resistors, later in the thread.
Because it makes the poll (and possibly the thread), relatively meaningless.
Sredni:
A nonlinear RESISTOR is a RESISTOR.
nonlinear here is an adjective that specifies a particular property of a subset of the general set of resistors.
A bald man is a man.
A one-legged man is still a man, even if in all medicine books the body of a man is shown with two legs.
A nonlinear inductor is still an inductor.
The inductors used in Single Ended Primary Inductor Converters are usually nonlinear but they are called inductors nonetheless. Have you ever read "the nonlinear coil two-port element's current is..." In the description of a switching circuit? No, everybody says "the inductor's current..."
Sheesh...
Gyro:
This is getting nobody anywhere...
In the real world, semiconductors, including diodes (of all flavors) have datasheets. These specify the typical and worst case voltage / current characteristics under defined conditions. People find these USEFUL in designing them into circuits and products in the real world. Your dogmatic semantic argument that they are all resistors is NOT USEFUL in the real world. See the distinction?
Your dinner tonight will have electrical resistance, which will be determined by its composition temperature etc. as will the plate it is sitting on, the table they are sitting on, the chair you are sitting on (and the arse you're sitting on it with). Will you sit there making semantic arguments that they should all be defined as resistors until it gets cold (or in your case possibly moldy), or in the real world, will you just eat it?
MK14:
--- Quote from: Sredni on April 24, 2024, 04:04:03 pm ---A nonlinear RESISTOR is a RESISTOR.
nonlinear here is an adjective that specifies a particular property of a subset of the general set of resistors.
--- End quote ---
If someone in an opening forum post, says "Resistor". That should mean a component, which obeys (without any trickery or messing around) Ohms Law. So it can't be a non-linear thing.
If it is (or could be something) which doesn't obey Ohms Law and/or a weird type of resistor. Then that should be clearly stated in the opening post/poll.
Otherwise, you are moving into the realms of (similar to), trick questions.
When making polls, it is very important that the question(s) and propositions etc. Are very unambiguous, to a very wide audience. Otherwise the poll results and possibly the thread, may just descend into massive arguments.
bdunham7:
--- Quote from: Sredni on April 24, 2024, 04:04:03 pm ---A bald man is a man.
A one-legged man is still a man, even if in all medicine books the body of a man is shown with two legs.
--- End quote ---
How about a fictional man? Or a robotic man? An AI man? A virtual man?
As I clearly explained earlier--and you appear to have used the concepts I explained and twisted them around to your own ends--something described by an adjective plus a noun does not necessarily belong to the set of things described by the noun alone. So it all boils down to how you choose to define resistor. And stop with the bleating that these aren't YOUR definitions but rather those of some famous people we're bound to respect--you don't have to invent the descriptions, they become "yours" if you choose to adopt them. My definition of convenience is that the term 'resistor' used alone with no prefix means a fixed, nominally linear resistor. I didn't invent that.
Wikipedia has an interesting statement--"The electrical function of a resistor is specified by its resistance". I like that. Is an LED's function specified by a resistance value? There's an opening for you in that statement, perhaps you'll get another 9 pages out of it.
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