We know that many of our readers are engineers, currently active or, like myself, retired.
- Are you familiar with the electrical analogy?
- Have you used it?
- In what field?
- Extensively?
Please leave your answers in a comment. Or if you prefer privacy, please email me: pfervor — at– gmail dot com.
I know we have knowledgeable people who stop by here. You may have heard of the electrical analogy even if not an engineer. While awareness of it is obscure at best, actually knowing it tends to be esoteric, so its significance is lost on those who have never or rarely used it.
The number who are familiar with it could affect how, or even if, I publish something I believe to be important in understanding what has proven in retrospect to be our enemy’s most effective weapon. Engineers with such experience will quickly pick up on it. Without sufficient numbers, why bother to add to our list of obscure, useless information?
I know of no way to keep readers aware that this survey exists after the next post is published. I do not think it warrants a sticky as there are other issues more pressing. I have not found a WP widget that could be marked “please take our survey” and left on a sidebar. So please, when you read this post, respond quickly before it gets lost in the shuffle. At least that way we will receive some responses.
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Retired EE. Yes if it means water flow, hills or buckets of data 😉
Yes. Active EE. Use electrical analogies all the time.
Author
I’m sure you use it for EE designs. But have you employed it for other disciplines? Do you mean you make metaphorical references to it when you observe other behaviors?
Absolutely. For certain matters it is the only way to make sense of things. I can email you examples of you wish.
Author
Please do.
I use them to explain mental development or maldevelopment in people.
Author
Yes. Water flow is one field. Just about any fluid dynamics network can be designed, analyzed and altered with it: e.g., water pipes, air ducts. I know nothing of hills or buckets of data. Please explain?
Paper ME with a few extra circuits classes. No, I don’t remember ever hearing of an “electrical analogy”.
Author
I had the same limited education. Not until I was out in the field did I learn that many other disciplines could adopt the technique.
Do you mean modeling mechanical systems with electrical circuits, say the energy stored in a spring with that stored in an inductor or capacitor? I remember it from college (late ’60s) but never had an application for it in my career.
Author
Yes, although I’ve never encountered its use to analyze springs. We are of the same vintage. My “prestigious” institution never ventured a clue. My mentor, 15 years my senior, was Case-Western credentialed, and he had it down pat for practical use in several disciplines, especially heat transfer.