Quote:
Originally posted by Alchemy
And to nitpick on what someone else said, centrifugal pumps *are* analagous to voltage sources. But they are not analagous to *ideal* voltage sources. They induce a potential in the fluid (pressure), but that potential is a function of flow rate. I've only studied basic circuits so I don't know if there are any voltage sources that act this way. But it's still a decent analogy, in my opinion.
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Actually, a better place to nitpick would be my comment that, "Positive displacement pumps are not current sources." If you ignore the pulsation in the output flowrate, a positive displacement pump is fairly analogous to a practical electrical current source.
However, no electronics manufacturer is going to sell a voltage regulator, who's output voltage sags as much with output current as the dP of a centrifugal pump does with flowrate. Voltage regulators will typically maintain an output within 5% of nominal (or substantially better) over their entire operating range.
I'd still have to say that a practical voltage source is an awfully poor analogy to a centrifugal pump.
Edit: I suppose a battery with its inherent series resistance behaves somewhat like a centrifugal pump. No competent electrical engineer would consider a battery a 'voltage source' though.