-tron, -tronic, -tronics +

(Greek: a suffix referring to a device, tool, or instrument; more generally, used in the names of any kind of chamber or apparatus used in experiments)

A possible allusion to the Greek instrumental suffix, as in árotron, "plow" as spelled in the U.S. or "plough", as spelled by the British; from the Greek stem aroun, "to plow".

The suffix -tron is the result of the combining form extracted from electron, used with nouns or combining forms, principally in the names of electron tubes (ignitron; klystron; magnetron) and of devices for accelerating subatomic particles (cosmotron; cyclotron); also, more generally, in the names of any kind of chamber or apparatus used in experiments (biotron).

electronic bulletin board

A computerized communication system that allows users to compose and store information to be retrieved by other users of the system.

electronic calculating-punch machine (s) (noun), electronic calculating-punch machines (pl)

A card-handling device that reads a hole in a card: An electronic calculating-punch machine performs a number of sequential operations, as well as indicating the results on the card.

electronic calculator

1. A device in which transistors perform mathematical calculations and utilize light-emitting diodes or liquid crystals to display the results.
2. A small, often pocket-sized, electronic instrument used to perform the basic operations of mathematical calculations.
3. An electronic tool for arithmetic and logarithmic computations which may also include a digital printer and a computer.
4. A calculator in which integrated circuits perform calculations and show the results on a digital display.

Most basic models provide all four arithmetic operations (+, -, x, ÷), usually with a floating decimal.

electronic camouflage

1. The use of electronic properties to minimize or to negate the presence of echoes in a radar system.
2. The use of electronic means, or exploitations of electronic characteristics to reduce, to submerge, or to eliminate the radar echoing properties of a target.

electronic cash register, ECR

1. A register with a component which scans the symbols on a package label, then converts them to a digital format in order to indicate the item price and, in some situations, maintain a record of sales and inventories as utilized in retail stores.
2. A system for automatically checking out purchased goods from retail food stores, consisting of a device that scans packages and reads symbols imprinted on the labels, and a computer which converts the symbol information to tell a cash register the price of the item.

The computers are also equipped to keep records of sales and inventories.

electronic chart reader

1. An input device which can scan curves from a continuous paper feed and convert them to digital data.
2. An instrument that scans curves by a graphical recorder on a continuous paper form and converts them into digital form.

electronic chart, digital chart

A navigational chart encoded in a computer-usable format and used, in combination with electronic devices, to produce a computer-generated video display that provides the navigator with an accurate pictorial presentation of the information normally gathered from a paper chart.

electronic circuit

1. A circuit which contains active electric parts; such as, electron tubes, electron transistors, and magnetic amplifiers, etc., as opposed to a circuit that contains only passive components; such as, resistors and switches.
2. An electric circuit in which the balance of electrons in a given electric part; such as, a tube, transistor, or amplifier, is disturbed by something other than an applied electric voltage.
3. An electric circuit having at least one element that manipulates the voltage or current in the circuit.

electronic clock, electromagnetic clock

1. A clock which uses electronic circuits to count the number of oscillations (movements going backward and forward) in quartz crystal to determine the timekeeping impulses that activate a digital display.
2. A clock in which the timekeeping impulse is provided by the oscillations (alternating current and associated electric and magnetic fields) of a tiny tuning fork attached to an electronic circuit.

electronic codebook mode, electronic code-book mode, ECB; block encryption

The use of a block cipher (encryption method), usually employing the data encryption standard (DES), in which each 64-bit block of data is enciphered or deciphered separately, and every bit in a given output block depends on every bit in its respective input block and on every bit in the key, but on no other bits.

electronic commutator

1. A type of switch that provides a continuous switching or sampling of a number of circuits by means of a radial-beam electronic tube or electronic switching circuit that reverses or exchanges the external connections in a transducer at a high rate of speed, and so it eliminates noise and wear.
2. An electron-tube or transistor circuit which switches one circuit connection rapidly and in sequence or following in an uninterrupted order to many other circuits, without the wear and noise of mechanical switches.

An example is the radial-beam tube, in which a rotating magnetic field causes an electron beam to sweep over one anode after another anode and produces the desired switching actions.

electronic component

1. A instrument; such as, an electron tube or a transistor, which does not use mechanical procedures to control electrical current and voltage in a circuit.Examples include electron tubes, transistors, and other solid-state devices.

electronic composition

Typesetting during which characters are generated by electron or laser beams at speeds exceeding about 6,000 words per minute.

electronic computing units (pl) (noun)

1. In card punch technology, the section of a tabulating instrument designed to ensure that it will process the data on punch cards in a prescribed method.
2. The sensing sections of tabulating equipment that enable a machine to process the contents of punched cards in a specified procedure.

electronic confusion area

1. An area on a radar screen which a target appears to occupy according to a particular radar beam.
2. The amount of space in which a target appears to occupy in a radar resolution cell, as it appears to that radar beam.

A cross reference of word units that are related, directly and/or indirectly, with "electricity": electro-; galvano-; hodo-; ion-; piezo-; volt; biomechatronics, info; mechatronics, info.

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Showing page 7 out of 15 pages of 215 main-word entries or main-word-entry groups.