Quiz me
Ten questions picked from the explainers (from the filters on the Explainers tab, if any are set). Each answer tells you why and which explainer to read.
About these explainers
Every explainer is built the same way:
- What it is, in a sentence or two.
- How it works, step by step, in plain words.
- Why it's built that way: what problem the design solves, and what the alternative was.
- What goes wrong, and how you'd diagnose it: symptom, then the test that proves it.
- Same idea elsewhere: where the same principle shows up in a car, a printer or copier, and a solar battery bank.
- A question or two to check your understanding, each with the why.
The numbers are typical values to give a feel for things. A specific car, printer or battery always follows its own service manual or data sheet, and that manual wins over this page.
How to use it
- Search by any word (it searches the whole explainer), or narrow by world (Car, Printer, Solar) and topic.
- An explainer counts as read when you press Mark as read at the bottom. The quiz remembers what you got right.
- Progress is kept in this browser only (a phone and a laptop each keep their own). Nothing is sent anywhere.
- Good with a friend: read one together, then each answer the question and explain your answer to the other.
Sources
Each explainer lists its sources at the bottom. The main ones used across the page: Ohm's and Kirchhoff's laws and standard physics (any first-year physics text, e.g. OpenStax College Physics); copper wire resistance from the standard AWG table (NEC Chapter 9, Table 8); battery behaviour from Battery University (Cadex) and LiFePO4 cell data sheets; charge controller and inverter behaviour from manufacturers' manuals and the book Wiring Unlimited; engine, charging, ignition, sensors and OBD-II from standard automotive texts (Halderman's Automotive Technology, Bosch Automotive Handbook) and SAE J1979/J2012; laser printing from HP and Ricoh service documentation and the history of xerography (Chester Carlson, 1938); CAN from Bosch's CAN 2.0 specification and ISO 11898; MQTT from the OASIS MQTT standard; storage from manufacturers' technical notes.