Cool Circuits

Our culture has trained people to think that digital is the way of the future. Computers are digital. Cell phones are digital. Cameras are digital. Everything good one day will be digital. Students do not see where analog electronics fit into their lives, nor do they see any cool applications of analog electronics. This paper discusses several demonstrations and design examples that show students cool things that can be done with analog electronics. The examples are targeted at introductory electronics courses in a two-course sequence. The purpose of the demonstrations is to generate engaging examples that make students more interested in analog electronics than in any other course. The circuits are at a level where students can understand the function of every component in the circuit, so students can understand, design, and build circuits that perform non-trivial functions at an early stage in their engineering careers