[rescue] Vector Plotters

[Dave McGuire]

On 10/06/2015 12:35 PM, Richard wrote:
>> [...] it's
>> trivial to move an electron beam VERY VERY QUICKLY.  Look at super-fast
>> analog oscilloscopes like the Tektronix 7104.
> 
> I wouldn't call it trivial to move it very, very quickly.  It is
> trivial to move an electron.  Moving it very, very quickly is
> non-trivial.
> 
> Tektronix has spent many decades incrementally improving the circuitry
> for deflecting the electron beam.  The 7104 dates from 1978 by which
> time Tektronix had already spent a couple decades improving their
> deflection beam technology.  It isn't the mass of the electrons that
> matters in the circuitry of deflecting the beam; it's the electrical
> response time of the magnetic/electrostatic mechanism in response to
> changes in the input signal.

  Pick, pick, pick.  I'm glad to see your behavior is consistent across
mailing lists.  I've sooo missed the classiccmp list.

  Not.

  I stand by my original assertion.  The term "quickly" is relative.
Within the context of our current discussion, moving an electron beam
"quickly" is quite trivial.  My point about electron mass was that the
mass of the electron beam is so tiny that it's barely a consideration.
The rest of it is relative.

  And at this point, the required techniques have been developed
(largely by Tektronix) was essentially perfected before 1980.  Hence,
it's now nearly trivial.

               -Dave

-- 
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA