Volume III - Measurement Circuits

Thread Starter

redderek

Joined Apr 13, 2010
2
I would suggest this topic be a bit general since there are many types of measurements that can be made in this world – optics, pressure, etc. Here is a proposal to start this out.
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The world around us is not digital, despite what we are told in the “digital age”. The world is analog which is now transferred to the digital world. However, in order to measure something, it is necessary to start off in the analog world and be able to convert what we want to measure into something that can be converted. Let’s start off with what can be measured.

The five senses for a body is touch, taste, hear, see and smell. All of these can be sensed by pressure, temperature, light, or chemical. Pressure is typically used for touch and sound. The measurement method is some form of strain gage such as a Whetstone Bridge to detect movement; for sound it comes in the form similar to a speaker moving back and forth. Measuring temperature is typically with a thermo couple, which is a semiconductor-type process. Light is detected by a semiconductor device. And chemical is, a chemical reaction. In all cases, a voltage or current is generated by the sensing element. An operational amplifier is used to condition and/or filter the signal. Once in a voltage or current form, an analog to digital converter is used to send the information to the digital world.
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Now, adding in a simple opamp circuit showing the various detectors makes more sense and shows that practically anything can be measured.
 
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