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SOLVED: “Integrals” & “integrator”: clear … AS MUD
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eti:
Hi there.

Could someone possibly find me a SIMPLE, well-explained description of what an “integral” is, as is the output of an op amp in “integrator” (feedback, capacitor) configuration, please?

It’s clear that some people CAN make tutorials ridiculously easy to grasp, and if you can find the integrator/integrals equivalent of this EXCEPTIONALLY easy to grasp video (below), then maybe this maths overload fog will dissipate (the usual assumptions BS found in full, dry, unhelpful “explanations” online and on YouTube)

We ain’t all Einstein and we didn’t all take advanced Maths classes - explain from the bottom up - make no assumptions AT ALL, is what I’d advise people wanting to make their explanation notoriously well respected, as an entertaining articulation of clarity is exceptionally rare.

Please, I beg you, don’t melt my brain 😂

This is the video I’m referring to which shows it IS POSSIBLE to alter the teaching method and have things “CLICK!!!!!!” suddenly (This is nothing to do with integration, Apart from being coincidentally a video on op amp operation - I’m merely saying that simplicity IS possible!!)

Summary: if you can help, I am looking for an equally as easy to understand Explanation of what integrals are in electronic waves. Thank you so much.

Forgive me for being lazy, and yeah I kinda noticed pretty quickly that the obvious solution was in my initial post - Bob Duhamel, the very chap in the video I quoted at the beginning (underneath)



So here’s the video, and it’s GREAT. Apologies for wasting your time.

magic:
Well, the opposite of derivative, ofc.

Analog integrators are a simple matter: the output slews at a rate proportional to the current fed into the integrator. More current - faster change, opposite current - opposite direction. Nothing more to it. Well, sometimes the output hits the rail, then it stops moving. They call it saturation.

An integrator typically keeps its input at a constant voltage (ground or similar), so a common variation on the theme is feeding the integrator through a resistor R whose remote end is connected to a voltage signal. This generates input current equal Vsignal/R.

The application in opamps should be fairly obvious.
tggzzz:

--- Quote from: eti on November 10, 2022, 08:35:07 am ---Could someone possibly find me a SIMPLE, well-explained description of what an “integral” is, as is the output of an op amp in “integrator” (feedback, capacitor) configuration, please?
...
We ain’t all Einstein and we didn’t all take advanced Maths classes - explain from the bottom up - make no assumptions AT ALL, is what I’d advise people wanting to make their explanation notoriously well respected, as an entertaining articulation of clarity is exceptionally rare.

--- End quote ---

Advanced? Everybody in my (state) school learned basic calculus (differentiation and integration of polynomials except 1/x) at 14-15yo.


--- Quote ---Summary: if you can help, I am looking for an equally as easy to understand Explanation of what integrals are in electronic waves. Thank you so much.

--- End quote ---

You are expecting somebody here to spend time poorly duplicating standard maths courses and textbooks?! Good luck with that :)

At the very least you should expend your time and effort documenting what you don't understand, so that people might have a chance of correcting your misunderstandings.

I suggest you look through the threads on this forum about suitable electronics books.
rstofer:
It's good you have it solved.  I would have pointed you to Khan Academy

https://www.khanacademy.org/math/ap-calculus-ab/ab-integration-new/ab-6-1/v/introduction-to-integral-calculus

Simply put, the integral is the area under a curve.

Op amp integrators are important because they lead directly to analog computers and those are important in visualizing differential equations at work.  A common example is the RLC circuit.

Way over the top but here's a Wiki on RLC circuits.  Note the damped sine wave...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RLC_circuit
TimFox:
One of the great moments in Western intellectual history was the discovery of "The Fundamental Theorem of Calculus"  https://mathworld.wolfram.com/FundamentalTheoremsofCalculus.html
Independently proven by Newton and Leibnitz,based on previous work by others, this theorem shows that the derivative and integral operators were inverses of each other.
It is trivial to understand the integral as the area under a curve, and the derivative as the slope of the curve, but the relation between the two operations is not obvious, but extremely important to mathematical analysis.
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