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> 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 firs

> 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.

itishappy 4y ago
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?
- srvmshr 4y ago
  > 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.
  - itishappy 4y ago
    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."

itishappy 4y ago

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?

srvmshr 4y ago
> 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.
- itishappy 4y ago
  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."