Foundations Of Amateur Radio

Foundations of Amateur Radio Last week I was casually asked "What is a resistor?" Now if you're into electronics like many radio amateurs, you'll instantly have a picture of a little blob with two wires with pretty colours painted on the outside, the size of a grain of rice and if you're not into electronics, you now know what a resistor looks like. Before I talk more about resistors, I'm going to talk about a stick. If you pick up a stick and poke something with it, some interesting stuff is actually happening. You move your hand at one end and the other end moves at the same time. Obvious right? It's a stick. On a molecular level something else is happening. The atoms under your hand inside the stick move back and forth with your hand as you move it. The atoms next to those atoms do the same thing. The atoms next to that, all the way to the end, also do the same. Now you likely have a picture in your mind of a solid stick. On a molecular level, this isn't solid at all. Instead of a solid stick, imagine