Technician exam: electronic components

1. A resistor's whole job is to oppose current; in a DC circuit it limits current according to Ohm's law. (p. 43)
2. A potentiometer is a variable resistor, so the quantity it adjusts is resistance. (p. 43)
3. A capacitor is made of two conducting plates or foils with an insulating dielectric between them. (p. 44)
4. Single pole, double throw means one common connection that can be routed to either of two other connections. (p. 44)
5. A diode conducts when forward biased and blocks current when reverse biased, so current flows one way only. (p. 45)
6. A bipolar transistor is a sandwich of three semiconductor regions, either NPN or PNP. (p. 45)
7. A transistor uses a small input signal to control a larger flow of power from the supply, giving power gain; passive parts cannot do that. (p. 46)
8. A bipolar junction transistor's three electrodes are the emitter, the base and the collector. (p. 47)
9. An integrated circuit packs many transistors, diodes and other parts onto one chip inside a single package. (p. 50)
10. Connecting an inductor and a capacitor, in series or in parallel, produces a circuit that resonates at one frequency. (p. 51)

Taken from the explanations to checked practice questions; page numbers link to the official handbook.