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
-Electrolytics are polarized (put them in backwards and they can explode) and have higher capicatances than ceramics. Ceramics are your lower values and have some different properties in general.
See:
Ceramic capacitor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Electrolytic capacitor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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?
I don't know that it does. The ones with leads on both ends are called axial. The other ones are radial.
Link: Electronics 2000 | Capacitor Code Calculator
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?
The big rectangle ones are high power resistors. If you have a lot of power (watts), you need either a blue resistor or one of the larger rectangle ones. I believe those are like 1Watt. If you don't have a high power resistor and you need one, it's likely to just get really hot and burn up. Usually you don't need these. The bands on the smaller resistors tell you the resistance value.
Link: Graphical Resistance Calculator
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?
Magic, I guess. They are just made differently - the materials have different properties which conduct current better or worse
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.
Yes, you can use PNPs and NPNs in the same circuits if you just switch up your supplies and a couple other things. You can even take entire courses dedicated to these guys and do that all you want! You have to basic transistor classes: FET and BJT. Honestly, I forget the major differences and applications since I'm not a big analog guy. But don't fear, I know there are plenty of analog gurus out there that will be more than happy to answer this one.
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.
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Remember, you can always Google a lot of this stuff if you have quick questions. Happy to help though! (Oh, and if you're going to buy a lot of parts, try not to buy them at radio shack or equivalent. You'll overpay. Design your circuit and get things from another source if you can...if the shipping works out well you'll save a lot of money in the long run.