Monkeysateme
I've been in your shoes and know what it's like, Infact I went thru a $10,000 college course to learn one little fact about electronics. The only thing I learned in college was .7V or more. This is the amount of voltage that is required to turn a transistor on. After I learned that this whole electronics thing became so much understandable. Once the transistor is on, it can do 2 things. 1, act as a switch in a logic circuit (by makeing the base junction equal to VCC or equal to ground,turns it on or off), or act as a current amplifier in an analog circuit, (a little current on the base, will allow a larger curent to flow thru the collector/emitter junction). Hope this quick little note helps you, and you never know, I may have saved you a $10,000 college course.