[sdiy] Transformer confusion

[Colin Hinz]

On Tue, 21 Sep 2004 Robotboy8 at aol.com wrote:

> Alright.  I was thinking about transformers today, and have come
> up with a lossless passive amplifier!  (Okay, I know this wouldn't
> work, elsewise it would be a miracle device that everyone would
> have heard of... but I'm trying to figure out WHY not).

Howdy! Visiting from one of the circuit-bending lists, I take it?

Simple answer to your question: you lose energy in every transformer
stage. The more you add to the circuit, in terms of transformer
stages (or anything else for that matter, even a straight wire, in
the strictest terms), the more you lose. You can series-parallel
them up the yin-yang and all that happens is that your source has
to pump more and more juice into the input to compensate.

Alas, the Laws of Thermodynamics aren't like the traffic laws. Break
'em and you get turned into positron flux or something. I've heard
that it's *far* more painful than being pulled over for speeding.

- Colin Hinz
  Toronto, Canada