@SaraB2026 A minor point, you might also mention to your professor he is most likely guilty of a common mistake, using the wrong power common signal, i.e. using Earth GND instead of signal ground.

 

I can, of course, only comment on what the assignment (clearly stated 'the assignment is as follows' at the bottom of the schematic) indicated.

She added clarification in post #4; which was about 15 posts before yours.

 

Hi S,
Learning electronics is an interesting subject, and may help you in other ways.
The first thing I would do is learn schematic symbols, so that you know what e,g, a capacitor looks like, then perhaps find out what each does. It shouldn't be too hard, and be a big help.

You will then see that 'say' a battery (number of cells) has a positive and negative, which will then match othere positives and negatives on a circuit.
Do all this while looking at the schematic, then ask questions to the teacher.

You never know that if you get into explosives, you may be asked to cut either the red wire or yellow one
C

 

I am having trouble putting the circuit onto a breadboard. I just cannot picture at all how the schematic is supposed to translate to real life. I don’t really understand the how to use the socket or the relay.

SaraB2026 – Refer to post #7 where WBahn had an excellent suggestion of simply drawing a box around each component. Everything else is wire. Once you realize that, making a breadboard of the circuit should be fairly simple.

The socket for the relay is simply a means of mounting and connecting the relay into the finished breadboard. Sockets are generally used when a component is not designed to be soldered into a circuit or may need to be replaced periodically. Schematically, it is transparent. It only shows up on a Bill of Material.

No, it is not a “nonsense circuit, but it does have a “fatal flaw” that you must find as part of the assignment to make it work as intended. Sorry, I can’t tell you what it is per Forum guidelines.

Could it be drawn better for the purpose of understanding the circuit? Yes, but that doesn't make it wrong. Could it be simplified? Yes, but that is not mandatory to make it work as intended.