What does a circuit (in a computer) do and how does it do it?
In: Technology
A circuit in this context is just a loop around which electrons can flow. As they do this, they encounter a bunch of different obstacles. Depending on what these obstacles are like, the electrons will do different things. This can trigger obstacles in other circuits or other bits of the same circuit to do different things, which can make more stuff happen.
These obstacles are called logic gates, and the circuits are called logic circuits. Stick a bunch of these together and you get a computer.
There are a number of different types of logic gates, and they can be built out of loads of different things, including [dominoes](https://youtu.be/OpLU__bhu2w) and [water](https://youtu.be/IxXaizglscw). In these cases, the domino runs or the tubes are the circuits.
A NOT gate is like a switch. If the signal coming in is “off”, the the signal going out is “on”. An OR gate takes two inputs. If either one or the other (or both) is ON, the output will be ON. You can think of this as being like a door handle. You only need to turn the handle on the outside OR the inside to open the door. On the other hand, an AND gate will take two inputs and only trigger is both input 1 AND 2 are on. This would be like a door with a lock. You need to undo the lock AND turn the handle for the door to open. You also get exclusive or gates, XORs, where it triggers if one OR the other input is on, but NOT BOTH.
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