Week 1

 Finished the first week of class!
This week we learned how to make simple circuits with a breadboard, and no it's not made out of bread!
We get to play with picoblocks, a coding program for little kids.  Below you can see a pic of the bread board, which currently has a photo cell on it, attached to an oscilloscope.  See the little waves on the screen?  That's the florescent light flickering! The Lights have gotten a lot better since I was a kid, but they can't fool the photocell!!

Here are a few questions about the lab, I will keep them at the bottom of each post, so I don't bore the passerby.

Tuesday Jan 29th:

How much current flows in the circuit if R =1 kΩ?

   . V of a battery = 4.5V and if R=1000 Ohms, I =V/R = 4.5 mA

Can you tell by looking at it if current is flowing in the circuit?

   . No

How much current flows through the LED?

   . The voltage across a Red LED is 2.2V for the light to turn on, so the voltage across the resistor is 2.3, 

      and I must be 23 mA

If you double the current by cutting R in half, does the LED “look twice as bright?” Why not?

   . No, the LED is basically either on or off, the 'brightness' only changes if you vary the frequency of on/off

Do the readings change in the way you expect as you cast a shadow on the photocell?

     . Well they do decrease, I couldn't get it to go to zero though

⌘ Can you make a shadow detector? That is, can you make the LED flash whenever your hand casts a shadow on the photocell?  Yes. It was neat.