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[edit] Analogy

I don't know if this is useful, but....

An analogy can be used to explain the effect of higher voltages without requiring an electrical engineering background. Wires can be thought of as pipes, and transistors can be thought of as a sluice whose gate is controlled by the presence of water. A logic gate could set its output to a "high" value by connecting its output to a pressurized water supply, or set its output to a "low" value by connecting its output to a drain. Stages of these gates connected by pipes would make up a complete circuit. Toggling a signal requires either filling or draining a pipe.

It should be obvious that the speed of the system is determined by how quickly pipes can be filled with water or drained, and that using more water pressure would increase the speed by increasing the current flowing through pipes. Water pressure is analogous to voltage.

--CTho 02:55, 6 September 2006 (UTC)