Practice Flashcards
Flip to reveal answersWhat is the difference between passive and active components?
Track your progress — Sign up free to save your progress and get smart review reminders based on spaced repetition.
All 4 Flashcards — Electronic components
Sign up free to track progress and get spaced-repetition review schedules.
Question
What is the difference between passive and active components?
Answer
Passive components limit, store or divert what is already in the circuit — resistor, capacitor, switch, relay. Active ones control the flow — diode, LED, transistor.
Question
What does a capacitor do?
Answer
Stores a small charge and releases it. It blocks steady voltages and passes changing ones, which is how it smooths a supply, sets a timing delay and couples an audio signal.
Question
Why use a relay rather than a transistor alone?
Answer
It carries far larger currents and keeps the two circuits electrically separate. That isolation lets a 5 V microcontroller switch a 230 V load safely.
Question
Why does every coil need a diode across it?
Answer
When the current stops, the collapsing magnetic field produces a large reverse voltage spike. The diode gives that current a path to decay instead of destroying the switching transistor.
Read the notes
Full study notes for Electronic components
Topic 3.4 hub
Electronic systems
More from Topic 3.4
All flashcards in this topic
Design Technology exam skills
Paper structures & tips
Track your progress with spaced repetition
Sign up free — Aimnova tells you exactly which cards to review and when, so you remember everything before your IB exam.
Start Free