Semi-OT, Unimportant question to soothe my curiosity ...
Semi-OT, Unimportant question to soothe my curiosity ...
(OP)
Please forgive me if this is way off topic but I was just curious about this.
I'm a mechanical engineer and at college one of my electrical engineering friends said this to me:
"If you play your walkman with the volume up the whole way, you will get more battery life than you would if you have the volume at a lower level"
His line of reasoning had to do with the basic equation for power. He said that the volume knob basically adjusts the resistance in the circuit. The higher the resistance, the less current through the circuit and the lower the volume in the headphones.
He also mentioned that the higher resistance required more power draw from the battery which drains the life faster.
Is any of this true?
I'm a mechanical engineer and at college one of my electrical engineering friends said this to me:
"If you play your walkman with the volume up the whole way, you will get more battery life than you would if you have the volume at a lower level"
His line of reasoning had to do with the basic equation for power. He said that the volume knob basically adjusts the resistance in the circuit. The higher the resistance, the less current through the circuit and the lower the volume in the headphones.
He also mentioned that the higher resistance required more power draw from the battery which drains the life faster.
Is any of this true?





RE: Semi-OT, Unimportant question to soothe my curiosity ...
RE: Semi-OT, Unimportant question to soothe my curiosity ...
He may have confused class A and class AB (or B) operation with volume control setting. But they have nothing to do with each other.
One of the dangers of being "half informed".
Gunnar Englund
www.gke.org
--------------------------------------
100 % recycled posting: Electrons, ideas, finger-tips have been used over and over again...
RE: Semi-OT, Unimportant question to soothe my curiosity ...
RE: Semi-OT, Unimportant question to soothe my curiosity ...
Good to see that some traditions haven't changed. When I
was in college, we used to give the Mechanical Engineers
a chart to convert cycles per second to Hertz......
We used semi-log paper so it wasn't a straight line.
Sigh, now a days, you are hard pressed to even *FIND*
semi-log graph paper.
Cheers,
Rich S.
RE: Semi-OT, Unimportant question to soothe my curiosity ...
Your friend is likely not pulling a prank on you, he is just plain stupid.
RE: Semi-OT, Unimportant question to soothe my curiosity ...
RE: Semi-OT, Unimportant question to soothe my curiosity ...
in the hallways, (heaven forbid in the rooms). In Fresno,
it gets so dry in the winter time, static was a real
"gottcha". I would swipe a fluorescent tube from the bathroom,
scuff along the carpet and discharge the tube on the nearest
doorknob. Used to "impress" the other dormies. "impress"
is not the right word.
And yes, it did indeed flash brightly.
Cheers,
Rich S.
RE: Semi-OT, Unimportant question to soothe my curiosity ...
TTFN
RE: Semi-OT, Unimportant question to soothe my curiosity ...
If the output power is 100mW at 10% efficiency then you are taking 1W. If you go to 500mW but the efficiency is now 20% that is still more power drawn (2.5W).
RE: Semi-OT, Unimportant question to soothe my curiosity ...
RE: Semi-OT, Unimportant question to soothe my curiosity ...
Good to know that there are some real traditions in
engineering......
Shoot, for me that was 30 years ago now. I hope that
your graph was also on semilog paper. The log curve helps
hide the correlation for those not initiated.
Cheers,
Rich S.
RE: Semi-OT, Unimportant question to soothe my curiosity ...
Learn it. Know it. Live it.
RE: Semi-OT, Unimportant question to soothe my curiosity ...
TTFN
RE: Semi-OT, Unimportant question to soothe my curiosity ...
Keith Cress
Flamin Systems, Inc.- http://www.flaminsystems.com
RE: Semi-OT, Unimportant question to soothe my curiosity ...
Quote of the day over at http://www.rfcafe.com/
"The joy of engineering is to find a straight line on a double logarithmic diagram."
- Thomas Koenig
That must Hertz
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"It's the questions that drive us"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~