Circuitbuilding Do-It-Yourself For Dummies®

Glossary

A

Adapter:

Connector that allows connectors of different types or families to be connected together.

Algorithm:

An equation or procedure that produces a result in a fixed number of steps.

Alternating current (AC):

Electrical current that flows in alternating directions.

Ammeter:

A test instrument that measures current.

Ampacity:

A wire or cable's rated current-carrying ability.

Ampere (A):

The unit of measurement of electrical current flow, named for Andre-Marie Ampere, a 19th-century scientist who studied electricity. One ampere = 6.25 × 10¹⁸ electrons per second.

Amplification:

The process of increasing the voltage, current, or power of a signal.

Amplifier:

A circuit that increases the amplitude of a signal.

Amplitude:

The size or strength of a signal.

Analog signal:

An electrical signal that has continuously varying voltages, frequency, or phase.

Analog switch:

A digitally controlled semiconductor switch for analog signals.

Anode:

The positive terminal of a diode, thyristor or vacuum tube (also called the plate in vacuum tubes).

Astable:

A device that has no stable state, oscillating regularly between two or more states.

Attenuate:

To reduce the amplitude of a signal.

Audio:

Signals with frequencies between a few hertz and 20 kHz.

Autorange:

To automatically adjust an instrument's scale so the measured value can be displayed.

B

Band-pass filter:

A circuit that attenuates signals above and below a specific range of frequencies.

Base:

The control terminal of a bipolar transistor.

Battery:

A device that converts ...