Would it be incorrect to say a node exists between two elements?

[goonking]

would it be wrong to say a node is in between two or more elements?

can there be two elements without a node in between?

 

[jedishrfu]

What do you mean by node? are they sharing electrons as in a molecular bond?

 

[Guneykan Ozgul]

Are you talking about an electric circuit and electric circuit elements?

 

[berkeman]

would it be wrong to say a node is in between two or more elements?

No, you would be correct (see the red dots)

http://mathonweb.com/help/node1a.gif

can there be two elements without a node in between?

Sure, when there is no direct connection between them.

 

[goonking]

No, you would be correct (see the red dots)

http://mathonweb.com/help/node1a.gif

Sure, when there is no direct connection between them.

The majority of my class had "branches" as the answer instead of "elements" and I was marked wrong for having "elements" as an answer.Was "branches" the better answer to this question?

 

[jedishrfu]

Branches is probably a more accurate answer but you might be able to argue that each branch has an element in it. However, ultimately its the teacher who decides and maybe you'll get partial credit for your thinking.

The best approach is to ask the teacher why branches is the preferred answer over elements as you thought each branch contained an element and you could look at it as connecting elements together.

 

[Averagesupernova]

Branches is probably a more accurate answer but you might be able to argue that each branch has an element in it. However, ultimately its the teacher who decides and maybe you'll get partial credit for your thinking.

The best approach is to ask the teacher why branches is the preferred answer over elements as you thought each branch contained an element and you could look at it as connecting elements together.

What I placed in bold was my exact thought also. You will never have a branch unless you have an element within it. The only place I could ever see this would be incorrect is parallel conductors. Even that is a stretch since when we parallel conductors is when their resistance becomes significant relative to the rest of the circuit which is saying the conductors have a significant resistance. I would also call the teacher on it. If nothing else I like to get in their head. :)

 

[jedishrfu]

What I placed in bold was my exact thought also. You will never have a branch unless you have an element within it. The only place I could ever see this would be incorrect is parallel conductors. Even that is a stretch since when we parallel conductors is when their resistance becomes significant relative to the rest of the circuit which is saying the conductors have a significant resistance. I would also call the teacher on it. If nothing else I like to get in their head. :)

Great post, but bad advice on the teacher. Teachers are people too. They are overworked. They often get students whining about poor grades. The best strategy is to learn from the experience by asking the teacher why branch was better than element rather than trying to win an argument with someone who is also the judge for the argument.

I knew a student one time who was so subtle that he would gently show the teacher that they got something wrong by asking a couple of questions privately after class and then leaving the teacher to decide what to do. Invariably the teacher would then correctly explain to it to us in the next class. I know the teachers really appreciated his tact because our Latin teacher told us about it on time in class (we were a year younger). This student was so good he consistently got straight A's but not just A's all his grades were straight 100's on every test. It really left an impression on me that I still remember this after 40+ years.

 

[berkeman]

This student was so good he consistently got straight A's but not just A's all his grades were straight 100's on every test. It really left an impression on me that I still remember this after 40+ years.

We were in the same class together?! Small world!

 

[jedishrfu]

We were in the same class together?! Small world!

Veni, Vidi, Relinqui!

Spoiler

I came, I saw, I left!

-- my Latin teacher's motto

 

[Averagesupernova]

Great post, but bad advice on the teacher. Teachers are people too. They are overworked. They often get students whining about poor grades. The best strategy is to learn from the experience by asking the teacher why branch was better than element rather than trying to win an argument with someone who is also the judge for the argument.

Not going to happen with me nor anyone who takes advice from me. They may be overworked, underpaid, people too, etc. etc. Lots of people are. But since they are 'people too', they are also capable of mistakes. Back in my day we asked a teacher why it was fairly common for loads to be switched on the low side. (Open collector) The reply was that because often it is the case that the collector had the most heat sink area on a transistor so it was placed in the collector circuit. Clearly the guy didn't know and was not about to admit this. We all know the teacher is the judge for the argument but that should not stop a student from stating their case. Any student who thinks that the teacher is not the judge deserves whatever they get.

 

[jedishrfu]

Not going to happen with me nor anyone who takes advice from me. They may be overworked, underpaid, people too, etc. etc. Lots of people are. But since they are 'people too', they are also capable of mistakes. ...

I think you missed my point. It'is that since the teacher is in a leadership position and may be impatient with students questioning their authority or knowledge then in general as a student your best strategy is to not antagonize them when asking them to change your grade or review your work. Yes you state your case but you do it as a set of questions that leads one of you or both of you to the proper conclusion. (Socratic method)

The teacher may still choose not to acknowledge his/her mistake but that's true no matter which way you approach this. Its the "You can catch more flies with honey" strategy. (Dale Carnegie in action.)

Wrt to Dale Carnegie, there was a humorous story on NPR about a boy whose Dad forced him to read and apply the Carnegie method at school to gain friends and influence his peers.

Here's the transcript:

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/198/transcript

and I will stop here and close this thread.