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Sometimes we physics types get awful posessive of the language. I"transformer"
have a black box with my train set that is clearly labeled
(stamped into the steel). It has a dc output.
Skip
-----Original Message-----me out
From: Wolfgang Rueckner [SMTP:rueckner@FAS.HARVARD.EDU]
Sent: Thursday, November 30, 2000 9:26 AM
To: PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu
Subject: Re: The "typical" high school physics teacher
On Wed, 29 Nov 2000 18:59:57 -0500 Michael Edmiston
<edmiston@BLUFFTON.EDU> writes:
............. My unqualified high school physics teacher kicked
him heof class one
day because I argued with him about transformers. He said they
converted AC to DC. When he wouldn't budge I eventually told
somedidn't know
what he was talking about.
On the other hand, your teacher might have been correct. Don't
Vac intotransformers, such as those that operate toy trains, convert 120
?a low voltage dc that is connected to the tracks and accessories
NEVER
That's called a power supply, not a transformer. Transformers
convert to DC. You have to add additional components to itsoutput to do
that. Wolfgang Ruecknerwill not
If so, you should have told the teacher that most transformers
exception.convert AC to DC but those that operate toy trains are an
Herb Gottlieb from New York City
(Where people used to give low-voltage DC toy electric train sets
to children for Christmas)
Dr. Wolfgang Rueckner
Harvard Science Center
1 Oxford Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
phone: (617) 495-5360
fax: (617) 495-1210