William Shockley, one of the inventors of the transistor, once explained transistor-amplifiers this way:
>*”If you take a bale of hay and tie it to the tail of a mule and then strike a match and set the bale of hay on fire, and if you then compare the energy expended shortly thereafter by the mule with the energy expended by yourself in the striking of the match, you will understand the concept of amplification.”*
which seems to describe the concept but not the process.
In: 6
That is indeed a terrible analogy.
There are a couple different ways, but I like this analogy:
You have two pipes carrying water, one large and one small. The large one has a valve, and the flow after the valve is dependent on how open the valve is.
The second, smaller pipe ends at a spring loaded piston. The more pressure it exerts, the further the piston extends. The piston physically connects to the valve handle.
As the smaller pipe experiences more or less pressure, it controls the output pressure of the larger pipe via the valve, which happens to have a greater maximum pressure.
Transistors can be used this way, just using voltage, which is electrical pressure
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