Cotowar
New Member
Okay, so I was in Radio Shack today, and I came across several variations of the same component. I was wondering what the difference between them is. For example,
Ceramic Disc Capacitor vs. Electrolytic Capacitor
Surface mount vs pins
They also had capacitors with a lead coming out each end and some with both leads on the same end. What does it matter?
Different types of resistors, I can't remember exactly the name of them.
They had these rectangle shaped ones, but they were the same resistance as the tiny little common kinds. The rectangle ones were white, and the little ones had the bands on them. What's the difference?
Also, how do they make the resistors so resistive without making them physically larger? I mean, if you have 3 purple bands and a gold band, thats a heck of a lot bigger than a 1 Ω resistor. How do they make them so different without changing the size?
Whats the difference between a MOSFET, PNP, and NPN? Couldn't you interchange the PNP and NPN if you switched the connecting circuitry around? I don't know, so please don't get irritated by the level of simplicity of these questions.
Oh, and what the heck is "magnet wire"? How is it different from regular stranded or solid wire? It doesn't look any different...
That's about it for now, I'll post more dumb questions later as I come up with them.![Smile :) :)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
Ceramic Disc Capacitor vs. Electrolytic Capacitor
Surface mount vs pins
They also had capacitors with a lead coming out each end and some with both leads on the same end. What does it matter?
Different types of resistors, I can't remember exactly the name of them.
They had these rectangle shaped ones, but they were the same resistance as the tiny little common kinds. The rectangle ones were white, and the little ones had the bands on them. What's the difference?
Also, how do they make the resistors so resistive without making them physically larger? I mean, if you have 3 purple bands and a gold band, thats a heck of a lot bigger than a 1 Ω resistor. How do they make them so different without changing the size?
Whats the difference between a MOSFET, PNP, and NPN? Couldn't you interchange the PNP and NPN if you switched the connecting circuitry around? I don't know, so please don't get irritated by the level of simplicity of these questions.
Oh, and what the heck is "magnet wire"? How is it different from regular stranded or solid wire? It doesn't look any different...
That's about it for now, I'll post more dumb questions later as I come up with them.