General > General Technical Chat
Spintronics - Learning electronics with mechanics?
PlainName:
--- Quote from: Circlotron on August 09, 2022, 10:29:58 am ---I wonder if the generations that grew up on vacuum tubes found it easier to visualise what was going on in a circuit? The fact that you could see where the electrons were coming from and going to, and the grid(s) that had an effect on them.
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Maybe!
ebastler:
--- Quote from: dunkemhigh on August 09, 2022, 10:35:50 am ---But what if you did it the other way: tell a plumber that a resistor is just like a narrow pipe. There is less chance of the analogy breaking down in that direction because he doesn't know enough about the resistor to realise where it falls over (he knows plenty about pipes, but that's not what he's trying to understand). Dig deep enough so the analogy does break down, and by then he should know enough for electronics to be standalone.
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Isn't that how analogies are typically used? Use models which are familiar to your audience, to introduce them to concepts which are unfamiliar and maybe abstract?
--- Quote ---So here instead of trying to describe electronics with mechanical simulacrums, the trick would be to use these specific modules to make circuits. And only those modules. Ultimately, when you've got the hang of what can be done, and how, it should be relatively easy to replace those modules with their electronic equivalent since you already know what they do and basically how they do it, it's just the detail that changes.
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But that's one of the problems I have with "Spintronics": Just looking at them as a mechanical system, the designs seem a bit strange. Gear ratios, gear & chain/belt, slip clutches etc. are all fine -- but why would you build something like this? I would not even get as far as translating it into electronics, because the mechanical design seems absurd in the first place. ::)
PlainName:
Thinking about it some more, I think the big problem with electronics is that there are two issues which you're having to solve at the same time: what something does and why that might be useful. An analogy: a button labelled "enable confabulator" has an entry in the user manual: "Press to enable the confabulator". Unless you know what the confabulator is, or what you might want one to do, it's meaningless. A simultaneous equation. That's where a newbie to electronics finds themselves.
The mechanical kit fills in one half of that. You might not know why you want that capacitor analog, but you can see how it works and what it is. Knowing what it is and how it does whatever that is, the kit here shows you why you might use it. Sure, it's complicated to look at (and maybe put together), but it's easily followed mentally since there is only one side of the equation to fill in. Once you've got the hang of it, you have both sides: what and why.
Now you can move onto something else. You know the why, you just have to fill in the what, and that's surely much easier than not having a clue about either.
PlainName:
--- Quote from: ebastler on August 09, 2022, 11:07:28 am ---
--- Quote from: dunkemhigh on August 09, 2022, 10:35:50 am ---But what if you did it the other way: tell a plumber that a resistor is just like a narrow pipe. There is less chance of the analogy breaking down in that direction because he doesn't know enough about the resistor to realise where it falls over (he knows plenty about pipes, but that's not what he's trying to understand). Dig deep enough so the analogy does break down, and by then he should know enough for electronics to be standalone.
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Isn't that how analogies are typically used? Use models which are familiar to your audience, to introduce them to concepts which are unfamiliar and maybe abstract?
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No, I think it's arse about face, although it looks similar. On the one hand you start with a big system you don't understand and get told a small part of it is just like this small part that you do know about. On the other, you start with a big system you do understand and get told the small part you don't understand is just like this small part of the big system you do understand. There's a big difference in the size of what you're trying to learn about.
mathsquid:
I don't like that it uses the name "Spintronics," because spintronics is already an established topic in physics.
https://www.spintronics-info.com
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