# Week 5
## Electronics Design
### Group Assignment
Gert explained to us how it can be helpful to think of electricity as water flowing through a tube. While this is not what is actually happening, it is helpful to understand voltage and amperage, and how resistors and capacitors work.
Writing about this helped me really understand or at least remember the difference between Voltage and Amperage.
|  |
|:---------:|
| *Electricity as a water hose* |
Here it is in my rough understanding:
- Electricity is electrons wanting to go from one point to another (they apperently travel backwards from negative to positive).
- Voltage is the difference between two points, in very rough terms *how badly* the electrons want to go from one point to another. In the metaphore it is the pressure of the hose.
- Amperage is the *how many* electrons want to go from one point to another. In the metaphore it is the diameter of the hose.
- Resistance is *how difficult* it is for electricity to go between two points. Electrically conductive materials like copper or steel have a low resistance, something like clay has a high resistance (there is a lot preventing the electrons from going through).
Capacitors can be thought of as water tanks in this analogy. This is why they help smooth out an intermittent current.
|  |
|:---------:|
| *Capacitor as water tank* |
> Use the test equipment in your lab to observe the operation
of an embedded microcontroller.
Gert showed us how to use an osciloscope to see a binary signal output from a raspberri pi microcontroler's pin.
|  |
|:---------:|
| *The Osciloscope measuring a binary signal (we see a square wave)* |
We also learned how to use a voltmeter. In particular, you can quickly debug connections by pressing the mode button and getting a sound signal that will create a beep whenever the two probes from the voltmeter are connected.
|  |
|:---------:|
| *The icon top right of the screen that looks like a WIFI signal will make a sound when 2 wires are connected* |
## Attachments
[attachment-1.ext](files/attachment-1.ext)
## Acknowledgments
Gert for running the TA group session and showing us how to use the instruments.
Quentin for the recitation on Kicad.
Anthony for helping me import the correct libraries on Kicad.