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Re:How do transistors work, anyway? by srvmshr on Tuesday November 29, 2022 @02:34PM (#33792125)
> I think the Digikey page is a far worse introduction than the article.

I started with a disclaimer: If you know nothing - absolute zero. If this was the first time you heard about it. And it does the thing its intended to do i.e. tell a concise history and introducing some of the jargons

To each his own. I think the OP article is pretty poorly written & handwavy. My complaint of not showing charge flow or polarities still holds.

Re:How do transistors work, anyway? by itishappy on Tuesday November 29, 2022 @02:57PM (#33792414)
Completely understood, but still completely disagree. My point is that I feel the DigiKey page is not a good introduction if you're starting from scratch. It barely introduces and doesn't explain any of the jargon. It spends less than 2 paragraphs to cover the material from the article, and includes the same plumbing valve diagram. It doesn't cover what a semiconductor is or what makes them useful. It misses all the information about how/why transistors work and jumps straight to how to design around them.

In other words, the DigiKey page fails to answer the question: How do transistors work, anyway?

Re:How do transistors work, anyway? by srvmshr on Tuesday November 29, 2022 @03:09PM (#33792584)
> In other words, the DigiKey page fails to answer the question: How do transistors work, anyway?

No, it is to first familiarize What is a transistor anyway?.

If I had to teach Complex Analysis, I would start with a calculus refresher. Or if I had to teach Deep learning, I would probably first explain what's a neural network. My recommendation followed a structure. You could even swap out Digikey product description pages for Wikipedia, I couldn't care any less if it just has to introduce what not how. But when it comes to teaching "how the stuff works", anything less than showing biases, polarities & charge flow is a handwave. I am not making arguments for the sake of arguments - if anyone thinks they got it without touching those, they are tricking themselves in.

Re:How do transistors work, anyway? by itishappy on Tuesday November 29, 2022 @03:29PM (#33792830)
That's not the point of this thread though, is it? It asks and answers a very different question. I do not think the history or specs are at all helpful in understanding what makes transistors tick.

"How do tower cranes work?"

"They can carry 20 tons and have a travel of 50 meters and were invented in 1950."