Plumber's Electronics for Beginners - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: edy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 24, 2012, 05:19:51 pm
content: Hi folks,I have always wanted to understand electronics better and used the "water analogy" which I think many of us are familiar with. That is, thinking of circuits as plumbing pipes with water flow being like electrons and components acting like various mechanical water plumbing parts.How useful has everyone found this to be? Can almost all basic electronics components be modelled evn in principle this way? I would like to make a model for children using transparent plastic tubes containing small floating balls which could represent electrons flowing.The "pump" pushing water up a gravity column driving the system can be called the battery, a resistor could be a piece of piping with lots of obstacles which would slow down the flow, capacitors could be large reservoirs that would need to fill up before the flow spills out again, a relay switch could be some kind of water-flow based gate, and so on (switches, transistors, motors could be like water paddle-wheel, etc).Has anyone seen this at a science center exhibit for kids, and how far can it be taken? I think many young people interested in electronics would enjoy using this analogy to help them understand, as long as it doesn't introduce any problems later in their conceptualization.Sincerely,Edy

author: McMonster
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 24, 2012, 05:53:41 pm
content: Quote from: edy on December 24, 2012, 05:19:51 pmI sometimes use this way of thinking if I have a problem understandind a circuit. Works nice.QuoteWarning, electrons flow in the opposite direction than the current. I often seen people discouraging thinking about electrons rather than the current.

author: AndyC_772
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 24, 2012, 05:58:21 pm
content: I think it's an excellent analogy, though personally I prefer to think of beer rather than water. I find it captures the imagination more readily, and when you get further down the line, you can use the bubbles to represent noise!Most components are readily modelled this way, though I think it's important to get the model right in order to avoid confusion later on. A capacitor, for example, isn't well represented by a reservoir - it's more accurately modelled by a pipe with a stretchy rubber diaphragm across it. Think about it: you want a device which more or less follows Q=CV, so the model needs to exert progressively greater pressure the more water (or beer!) has been forced into it. A small capacitance is represented by a stiff diaphragm, and a larger capacitance by a thinner, stretchier one. You could even poke a small hole in the middle to model leakage current if you like.

author: LaurenceW
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 24, 2012, 06:43:07 pm
content: Ahhh! Sothat'show electricity works, is it?A plumber.

author: M0BSW
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 24, 2012, 08:11:43 pm
content: This is what I've been missing the Holy grail of electronics

author: retiredcaps
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 24, 2012, 09:35:11 pm
content: Quote from: edy on December 24, 2012, 05:19:51 pmMartin has done a number of tutorials and sometimes in his explanations, he uses a water analogy. The videos are long and may not be your "style", but seehttps://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC8A1AD995AB64055

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 24, 2012, 09:57:59 pm
content: A very good idea if it helps kids, thing is you will find a point where the plumbing representation is as hard to understand as the principle you want to illustrate how much do kids know about plumbing, you need to focus on representation versus direct analogy.

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 25, 2012, 12:44:22 am
content: yep .plumbing works. you can even explain capacitors ( a tube that widens and in the middle has a membrane in it. pump water from one side to another and you can show the charge move. )even things like signal reflection can be shown. take a bottle of water hold horizontal and then give a sharp sideways shake. you will see the wave travel from one end of the bottle until it hits the edge and then bounces back... then result is a very 'dirty' splash : this is signal distortion caused by incorrect termination. the wave hits the wall and bounces back and intermodulates