On Sun, 12 Jun 2005 22:59:18 -0500, "operator jay"
wrote:

You are the one with the requirements, assertions, and definitions, not me.

Actually, the ones with the requirements, assertions, and definitions
are codes and organizations such as the NEC and the IEEE, and the
bothersome universities that teach the stuff.

On this point:

Picture my flashlight, battery powered. Generally this is considered a dc
circuit. When I turn it on or off, there is 'change'. So is it in fact an
AC flashlight? If the battery starts to die there is a change so is it in
fact an AC battery? Etcetera. (These questions are rhetorical by the way).
I know better than to try to pin a strict name on these things where there
is not an (adequately) universal and strict definition.

You are talking about transients, and if you intend for the questions
to be rhetorical, then I think you should demonstrate some expertise
in the subject matter that shows why the questions' answers must be
obvious. I don't think they are, so I will answer the questions:

The behavior of the flashlight in your example is neither AC nor DC,
it is transient. The first case is the instantaneous step function
caused by the closing of a source to a circuit. The second case is a
long-term curved ramp caused by the decay of a voltage source. AC and
DC analyses are steady-state. AC analysis will never apply to the
example. DC analysis must be performed prior to the transient
analysis in order to provide a steady state model for the application
of time-sensitive mathematics.

There is quite a bit of information available on the web about circuit
analysis. Your curiosity is to be commended; you might consider a web
crawling adventure, or even an education in the field.

And hey operator jay, what do you operate? Not electrical
substations, I wouldn't guess.

--
Al Brennan

"If you only knew the magnificence of the 3, 6 and 9,
then you would have a key to the universe." Nicola Tesla