Transistor

electronics · semiconductors · technology · switches

Three magical terminals. A transistor has three connection points, and when you send a signal into one pair, it controls the power flowing through the other pair. This is like having a tiny remote control for electricity.

It amplifies signals. The cool part is that the output power can be much bigger than the input power, so a transistor can make weak signals stronger. This is why you can hear a quiet radio station at full volume through a speaker.

The building block of everything. Transistors are the main active components in basically every electronic device you use, from phones to computers to headphones. Modern technology simply would not exist without them.

Tiny and bundled up. Some transistors are sold individually, but most transistors today are packed together by the millions inside integrated circuits, which are the computer chips inside your devices.

Changed the whole world. The transistor is considered one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century because it replaced bulky vacuum tubes and made modern electronics small, fast, and affordable.