[sdiy] The Origins of Q

[tpolokonis at sbcglobal.net]

Hi, I've never posted before, but I was curious about the term, too.
Here's what I found.  Made sense to me:

Q: initially stood for 'Quality Factor'. This was due to the fact that
it was first used to describe the energy storage properties of a circuit
in relation to its energy dissipation properties.

Found it at http://www.electronicsandinnovation.com/q.htm.

-Tom

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
[mailto:owner-synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl] On Behalf Of Glen
Sent: Sunday, March 27, 2005 11:31 AM
To: synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
Subject: [sdiy] The Origins of Q

Please, help me settle something.

How old is the term "Q", as used in electronics? I imagine it was used
in
the early days of radio broadcasting, because the Q of various RF
circuits
was a big concern to radio designers, but does it predate this? Does
anyone
know the history of the term? When was it first put into use?

As you can imagine, searching Google for the letter Q isn't very
helpful.  :)

I'm hoping that maybe one of our old-timers might remember the story of
Q.  ;)

(This old-timer seems to have forgotten it.)


thanks,
Glen