Intro
We started this unit practicing electrical circuits such as parallel and series and watched to see how the brightness of the bulbs changed. After that we moved on to practicing on breadboards (as see below).
We started this unit practicing electrical circuits such as parallel and series and watched to see how the brightness of the bulbs changed. After that we moved on to practicing on breadboards (as see below).
We were able to accomplish lots of cool things on the breadboards such as making a light blink on and off, as well as adding other components, such as capacitors. After the breadboards and the electrical circuits we moved on to programming. We programed in a language called Python. Python took a long time to learn and was quite difficult. The course totaled 14 hours to complete.
Programming Concepts
Modulo - returns the remainder from a division (ex: 3 % 2 will return 1)
Strings - another useful data type that con contain letters, numbers, and symbolsComments - messages in the code that are not read by the computer, only for humans to see, encased by quotations. A comment that stretches over more than one line needs three quotations on either side.
Functions - one of the most basic methods in code, entered into the code by defining it
Editor - the area where you write your code
Apostrophes - these break the strings, so in Python code, we use a backslash to fix this Variable - stores piece of data and gives it a specific name
Boolean - a data type that can only have two values
White Space - used to structure code and properly indent with four spaces
Console - where the code results and/or error messages are shown
Exponents - the exponent sign (^) is not used, instead (**) is
Division - %
String methods:
1 len () = length / number of characters of a string
2. lower () = gets rid of all capitalization
3. upper () = capitalizes all letters
4. str () = changes non-strings into strings
Examples of string methods:
1. given parrot = "Norwegian Blue", len (parrot) = 14
2. "Norwegian Blue".lower () = "norwegian blue"
3. "norwegian blue".upper () = "NORWEGIAN BLUE"
4. str (2) = "2"
Electrical Concepts
Circuit - a complete loop of conductive material with a power source
Resistor - something that reduces the flow of electricity, but doesn't stop it
Current - the amount of electrical flow through a circuit
Voltage - the push or pull of electricity
Ohm's Law - Voltage = Current x Resistance
Kirchoff's 1st Rule - the total current out of a node equals the total current into a node
Reflections
The biggest thing I learned during these two units was patience. For both programming and creating electrical circuits was tedious and time consuming. The terms of programming were difficult to remember and decipher when reading the instructions. Electrical circuits were very tedious and easy to not have a closed circuit, but harder to figure out where you went wrong. All in all it was a big learning experience.
Modulo - returns the remainder from a division (ex: 3 % 2 will return 1)
Strings - another useful data type that con contain letters, numbers, and symbolsComments - messages in the code that are not read by the computer, only for humans to see, encased by quotations. A comment that stretches over more than one line needs three quotations on either side.
Functions - one of the most basic methods in code, entered into the code by defining it
Editor - the area where you write your code
Apostrophes - these break the strings, so in Python code, we use a backslash to fix this Variable - stores piece of data and gives it a specific name
Boolean - a data type that can only have two values
White Space - used to structure code and properly indent with four spaces
Console - where the code results and/or error messages are shown
Exponents - the exponent sign (^) is not used, instead (**) is
Division - %
String methods:
1 len () = length / number of characters of a string
2. lower () = gets rid of all capitalization
3. upper () = capitalizes all letters
4. str () = changes non-strings into strings
Examples of string methods:
1. given parrot = "Norwegian Blue", len (parrot) = 14
2. "Norwegian Blue".lower () = "norwegian blue"
3. "norwegian blue".upper () = "NORWEGIAN BLUE"
4. str (2) = "2"
Electrical Concepts
Circuit - a complete loop of conductive material with a power source
Resistor - something that reduces the flow of electricity, but doesn't stop it
Current - the amount of electrical flow through a circuit
Voltage - the push or pull of electricity
Ohm's Law - Voltage = Current x Resistance
Kirchoff's 1st Rule - the total current out of a node equals the total current into a node
Reflections
The biggest thing I learned during these two units was patience. For both programming and creating electrical circuits was tedious and time consuming. The terms of programming were difficult to remember and decipher when reading the instructions. Electrical circuits were very tedious and easy to not have a closed circuit, but harder to figure out where you went wrong. All in all it was a big learning experience.