Another acronym that is certainly confusing: MCB referencing Miniature Circuit Breaker, when most would think Main Circuit Breaker.
Why reference a component based on it's size rather than the application. That is why there is also Branch Circuit Breaker, seldom abbreviated. So some terms are confusing.

GFI fooled me for quite a while but I eventually figured it out from context -it’s an RCD or RCCB.
(that’s Ground Fault Interruptor, Residual Current Device and Residual Current Circuit Breaker).
I’ve never come across a Main Circuit Breaker, here its an Incomer*
but the term is not common as the supply to the premises always has a fuse, not a circuit breaker.

*and so is someone who has just moved into the area.

 

Ground: A strong connection to the Earth itself
Ground: The third terminal in an AC plug, typically round in US household usage
Ground: The return side of a power source
Ground: The return side of a signal source
Ground: The lowest power supply voltage in a system
Ground: An intermediate power supply voltage in a system
Ground: The highest power supply voltage in a system
Ground: And many more!

 

LCD liquid crystal display
OLED organic LED
non-GMO-LED beyond organic

 

The abbreviation I could never get used to was the N.A. use of mil's in machining, for thousandth of an inch, rather than say, thou's.
Especially when you are also used to metric measure.
I had never remember seeing it used in the UK.
Evidently Mil is not an abbreviation.

.

 

If one goes way, waaaaaay back:

TRF: tuned radio frequency.
A method of tuning a radio signal, which was superseded by superheterodyne receivers, also known as Superhets, which converts the RF (radio frequency) into an IF (intermediate frequency) before being detected into AF (audio frequency).

 

BFO = Beat frequency oscillator, Invented by a Canadian in 1901.
Very handy when you are receiving morse !

 

BFO = Beat frequency oscillator, Invented by a Canadian in 1901.
Very handy when you are receiving morse !

An also, when finely tuning the station to decode SSB. I started that way in my first years a a radioamateur.

 

The abbreviation I could never get used to was the N.A. use of mil's in machining, for thousandth of an inch, rather than say, thou's.
Especially when you are also used to metric measure.
I had never remember seeing it used in the UK.
Evidently Mil is not an abbreviation.

Mil tends to be an abbreviation of millimetres
Thou is thousandths of an inch.

 

Mil tends to be an abbreviation of millimetres
Thou is thousandths of an inch.

Not in N.A. USA particularly . Mil is a 1 thou measure.
That is why I could never get used to it!
BTW, it is not an abbreviation.?

https://www.uline.com/CustomerService/ULINE_FAQ_Ans?FAQ_ID=49

 

Not in N.A. USA particularly . Mil is a 1 thou measure.
That is why I could never get used to it!

Yes - Mil is a dangerous unit to use, if you need to make sure things get made the right size!

 

make sure things get made the right size!

I especially am on alert at the bar, Here they often try and slip you a US (16oz) pint, instead of the regulation Imperial!

 

I especially am on alert at the bar, Here they often try and slip you a US (16oz) pint, instead of the regulation Imperial!

My wife, when she moved here from the USA, brought an American pint pyrex measuring jug. I already had a British pint pyrex measuring jug. Image what happens if you make custard in the wrong jug. Ever had custard you could cut with a knife?
Eventually, I managed to smash the American jug (honest, it was an accident). It wouldn't have broken if it had had the custard in it.

 

The abbreviation I could never get used to was the N.A. use of mil's in machining, for thousandth of an inch, rather than say, thou's.
Especially when you are also used to metric measure.
I had never remember seeing it used in the UK.
Evidently Mil is not an abbreviation.

.

The use of "mil" apparently came from those with a speech impedimemt, although it may have been an intellectual impediment.
But consider we do have milliamps=a thousandth of an amp.

 

The use of "mil" apparently came from those with a speech impediment, although it may have been an intellectual impediment.

They couldn't pronounce 'Thou' ??

 

Eventually, I managed to smash the American jug (honest, it was an accident).

I'd believe you !

 

I always assumed it was from the Latin mille for 1000.

 

There is a problem in that all three of those video formats have been used in the same style of VCR cartridges. So tapes purchased in the UK do not play in the US. And unfortunately the format is seldom given on the cartridge.
Likewise with CDs,, where thosefrom other parts of the world do not play here in the USA. and making matters worse, playing a CD rhat is supposed to fix that problem can result in the player being "bricked." That means that it plays CDs as well as a brick would play them.

Actually while living in Italy I bought a nice RCA TV (circs early mid 80s) which had no problem playing the selected format be it NTSC, PPAL or SECAM. Pretty slick 20" flat CRT screen. Also had two Pioneer tape decks with the same capabilities. Following 3 years abroad I dragged the stuff home to the USA where I used them for another decade. Good stuff but anyway during the early and mid 80s they worked well. Living north of Napoli the Italian government finally gave us a TV band where the US could transmit TV in the NTSC format. Nice to see some American English TV. Anyway traveling abroad was never a problem as long as you had a good multisystem. Just about every country we worked in had an AFRTS (Armed Forces Radio & TV System. The Armed was later changed to American for some image adjusting.

Ron

 

I always assumed it was from the Latin mille for 1000.

So did I - the same Latin "mille" as in millimetre.

 

Two pages in, and no-one has mentioned variable resistors?
Pot is short for potentiometer. A potentiometer is a three terminal device with a resistive track and a wiper that moves along the track. The tracks are usually carbon, but can also be wirewound.
I suppose that it must only really be a potentiometer if one end of the track was connected to 0V, the other to a fixed DC voltage and the wiper selects a variable potential (voltage).
If the input was AC not DC then isn't it an attenuator?
If only the wiper and one end of the track are connected, then it's a rheostat.
The same thing designed for occasional adjustment with a screwdriver is a preset (which I think is short for preset potentiometer) or a trimmer.
If the resistance of the track is uniform, then it is a linear potentiometer. If it is made so that it has more variation towards one end than the other, then it is a log (logarithmic) pot. Whether it is linear or log is known as the law.

Fixed attenuators are know as pads (don't know why, perhaps someone who does radio will enlighten me).
There are L-Pads, T-Pads and Π-pads which comes from the shape of the circuit when drawn.

 

there are also audio scale potentiometers which I think fall into the same category as the logarithmic ones