On 4 Jan 2006 13:22:13 -0800, jim rozen
wrote:



When the converter is operating of course there is one special lead
that breaks the symmetry - it's missing the line connection. An
electrican would say that the absence of that line connection does
not change the fact the two sets of windings are in parallel. A
EE looks at the entire network as a system, including the incoming
power. He says parallel means all nodes have the same number of
connections.

Jim

He does? In circuit analysis, a set of two-terminal networks are
regarded as "in parallel" if they are each connected to the same pair
of nodes so the voltage across them is identically the same.
Similarly, a set of n-terminal networks are in parallel if they are
connected to the same set of n nodes so the various inter-terminal
voltages on each n-terminal network are identically the same for
corresponding pairs of terminals. This is regardless of whatever
else might be connected to, between or among those nodes and
regardless of any external symmetry or lack thereof. Some nodes may
well have more connections than other.

By this definition, if there are wires connecting each terminal of
one device to a corresponding terminal of another device, they
are in parallel -- regardless of what else might be connected to those
terminals.