ELEC 242 Lab

Interlude

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So far, the signals we have observed have been simple, and their sources assumed to be ideal. Similarly, we have assumed that the measuring instrument had no effect on the signal source. Real signal sources and destinations are not ideal, but rather have a resistance associated with them, as shown in the diagram below. For resons which will soon become apparent, it's common to refer to the destination of a signal as the load.
Ordinarilly we assume that is negligably small (e.g. 0) and that is extremely high (e.g. ). This assumption usually works but sometimes fails, causing "anomolous results".