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Ellis Abel Learns.

In my own words

Why I love electronics

Technicians in clean-room gear install guidance, navigation and control electronics boxes into the Juno spacecraft. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Electronics" page.
Technicians in clean-room gear install guidance, navigation and control electronics boxes into the Juno spacecraft. NASA/JPL-Caltech · Public domain
  • Tiny parts doing exact jobs.
  • If one wire is loose, nothing works.
  • I can follow the path with my finger.

What it really is

Electronics routes small electric currents through parts that each do one job.

Three things to try today

  1. Open something broken and look inside.
  2. Find where the power comes in.
  3. Trace the path with your finger.
Technicians in clean-room gear install guidance, navigation and control electronics boxes into the Juno spacecraft. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Electronics" page.
Technicians in clean-room gear install guidance, navigation and control electronics boxes into the Juno spacecraft. NASA/JPL-Caltech · Public domain

For the grown-up reading this

Tracing the power path is circuit reading. Do it on something already broken.

Why I love electronics — 4,299 places across America

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Love something else too

A technician sets up wiring and monitoring equipment at Launch Pad 39A for a shuttle tanking test. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Electricity" page.Why I love electricityTwo rocket engine tests fire at once on the test stands at Stennis Space Center, throwing huge white exhaust plumes into the air. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Energy" page.Why I love energyThe two-bladed Mod-1 wind turbine standing on its lattice tower on a hilltop at Boone, North Carolina. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Wind Power" page.Why I love windAn orange-and-white Saildrone autonomous research vessel under sail on the water near San Francisco Bay. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Oceans" page.Why I love the oceanA USGS cartographer bends over a light table, scribing contour lines by hand onto a topographic map separation. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Maps" page.Why I love mapsA worker checks a replacement distillation assembly for the space station's water recycling system in a processing facility. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Recycling" page.Why I love recyclingAn aerial photograph of the Vehicle Assembly Building under construction at Kennedy Space Center, its steel frame still open to the sky. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Building" page.Why I love buildingAn aerial view of construction crews and barges working to complete the westbound span of the Indian River causeway bridge. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Bridges" page.Why I love bridges

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