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Concept
Linear circuit
Summary
A linear circuit is an electronic circuit which obeys the superposition principle. This means that the output of the circuit F(x) when a linear combination of signals ax1(t) + bx2(t) is applied to it is equal to the linear combination of the outputs due to the signals x1(t) and x2(t) applied separately:
It is called a linear circuit because the output voltage and current of such a circuit are linear functions of its input voltage and current. This kind of linearity is not the same as that of straight-line graphs.
In the common case of a circuit in which the components' values are constant and don't change with time, an alternate definition of linearity is that when a sinusoidal input voltage or current of frequency f is applied, any steady-state output of the circuit (the current through any component, or the voltage between any two points) is also sinusoidal with frequency f. A linear circuit with constant component values is called linear time-invariant (LTI).
Informally, a linear circuit is one in which the electronic components' values (such as resistance, capacitance, inductance, gain, etc.) do not change with the level of voltage or current in the circuit. Linear circuits are important because they can amplify and process electronic signals without distortion. An example of an electronic device that uses linear circuits is a sound system.
The superposition principle, the defining equation of linearity, is equivalent to two properties, additivity and homogeneity, which are sometimes used as an alternate definition
Additivity
Homogeneity
That is, a linear circuit is a circuit in which (1) the output when a sum of two signals is applied is equal to the sum of the outputs when the two signals are applied separately, and (2) scaling the input signal by a factor scales the output signal by the same factor.
A linear circuit is one that has no nonlinear electronic components in it. Examples of linear circuits are amplifiers, differentiators, and integrators, linear electronic filters, or any circuit composed exclusively of ideal resistors, capacitors, inductors, op-amps (in the "non-saturated" region), and other "linear" circuit elements.
Official source
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