2 ms·
> means simply that the relationship of current and voltage across the device is not a linear function. That's not correct. An ordinary resistor will have a (w
by semi-extrinsic 10y ago
> means simply that the relationship of current and voltage across the device is not a linear function.
That's not correct. An ordinary resistor will have a (weakly) non-linear V-I relationship as well. The key here is that in some small region, the V-I graph is "going down", whereas for normal components it's always "going up".
- ChuckMcM 10y agoFair enough, but as I mentioned these devices have both positive and negative slope in their V-I curves. That said, where have you seen non-linearity in ordinary resistors? Just for grins a I pulled one out my parts drawer and threw it on the sweep generator on my bench. I could not identify any non-linearity in the sweep, it was simply a straight line between 0 to 10mA. Where are you seeing nonlinearity in your resistors?
- ISL 10y agoAs resistors start to heat, their resistance tends to increase, yielding a non-linear relationship between voltage and current. An extreme example of this is the incandescent light-bulb filament.
- ChuckMcM 10y agoThis is absolutely true, if I drove my little resistor right out of its rated power dissipation spec it would go non-linear and eventually discontinuous :-). Often a visual indicator accompanies this deviation from the datasheet in the form of smoke. I think we all agree though that a negative differential resistance is most simply defined as a negative slope on an I(V) plot for a specified range of V.