Egg-crate analogy

Abstract

A simple analogy is made between a crate of eggs and a semiconductor crystal. This permits easy visualization of such semiconductor properties as valence and conduction bands, thermal creation of electron-hole pairs, and doping. In addition, biasing is easily demonstrated along with conduction by majority and minority carriers in the valence and conduction bands.

On the origin of energy: Metaphors and manifestations as resources for conceptualizing and measuring the invisible, imponderable

“…While related to analogies, metaphors differ in that they are not explicitly used as a tool to illustrate one phenomenon by comparing it to another one that shares its features. For example, an unobservable, microscopic property may be illustrated using a macroscopic analog (e.g., using egg crates to show properties of a semiconductor crystal 3 ). Instead, metaphors implicitly ascribe properties of one idea to another.…”