Resistors for current measurement

[mklotz]

On the other hand, I'm always knocked out by your craftsmanship — and ability to come up with so many useful gadgets. And keep track of them all. How do you keep track of 'em all?

Thanks much for the compliments.

Well, I'm blessed with (cursed by sometimes) a near eidetic visual memory. [My wife marvels that I can walk into the room where she's viewing a TV movie and, with a casual glance at the screen, remark that I've seen the movie before.]

With this kind of memory, I can mentally review in detail all the things I've built. It's especially helpful when I wish to design something new. I seldom put plans on paper and do all the design work in my head. Occasionally I'll make small working sketches to work out complex dimensions.

It also helps in finding stuff. Most times I can picture which side of which drawer or cupboard an item of interest is located. I reinforce this by always storing something for the first time in the first sensible place that occurs to me knowing full well that that place will pop to mind when I go to find it in the future.

It appears to be an inheritable trait. Like me, my oldest daughter can instantly tell you whether a picture/drawing/map was located on the left side page or right in an opened book.

Neither of us are totally eidetic. We can't visualize text we've read and 'reread' it unless the text happens to be part of a pictorial representation.

Another surprising thing is the fact that my general memory deteriorates with age (now 77) normally; most days I can't tell you what I had for dinner yesterday. Yet the eidetic thing doesn't seem to deteriorate. It's probably housed in some part of the brain distinct from where 'normal' memory is kept.