P6 - Transistors & Logic Gates

Question 1

What are transistors?

Answer 1

• Transistors are the basic building blocks of electronic components.
• Transistors can be made so small that the circuits of a modern computer may contain billions of them.

Question 2

How can transistors be used as electronic switches?

Answer 2

• In transistors a small amount of current is used to control the flow of a much larger current, this means they can be used as electronic switches.

Question 3

What are the three parts to a transistor?

Answer 3

• Base - The “Switch” that controls the flow of current, if no current is applied to the base it stops current flowing through the rest of the transistor, when a small current is applied to the base, a larger current can flow through the collector and emitter, a large current flowing through the base would damage the transistor.
• Collector - Current flows into the transistor through the collector
• Emitter - Current flows out of the transistor through the emitter

Question 4

What are LEDs?

Answer 4

LEDs are just fancy light bulbs, you can make a circuit to control one using a transistor.

Question 5

What are logic gates made of?

Answer 5

Logic gates are made of really small components like transistors and resistors.

Question 6

What can logic gates be used for?

Answer 6

Logic gates can be used to process information, giving different outputs depending on the input(s) they receive.