Electrical Devices vs Electronic Devices—What’s the difference?

In the engineering and technical communities, the terms electrical and electronic are often conflated due to the poor understanding of the subtle yet significant distinctions between them. Understanding the difference is important not only because the two terms have differing meanings, but because of the tendency to abstract or abbreviate very particular language during technical conversation. A misunderstanding or miscommunication to an engineer could mean the difference between building an electrical toaster or an electronic toaster.

In 1893, Alan MacMaster invented the first electric toaster in Edinburgh, Scotland. The heating elements in a toaster turn electrical energy into heat so you can burn your toast. Herein lies the distinction between electric and electronic devices—the manipulation of energy in technology.

Electrical Devices

Electrical devices take the energy of electrical current, the flow of electrons in a conductor, and transform it in simple ways into some other form of energy—most likely light, heat, or motion. An electric device is one that directly uses electrical energy to perform a task.

Electronic Devices

In contrast, electronic devices do much more. Instead of just converting electrical energy into light, heat, or motion, electronic devices are designed to manipulate the electrical current in ways that adds meaningful information to the current.

For example, an electronic toaster uses the same heating elements, springs, and bread racks as an electric toaster, but may include a variety of more complex components such as an electronic display panel that shows you the progress of your toasting, or an electronic thermostat that attempts to keep the heat at just the right temperature. Electronics refers to technology that works by controlling the motion of electrons in ways that go beyond electrodynamic properties like voltage and current.

What is the difference between electrical and electronic devices?

Typically, if something uses electricity merely as energy, it is electrical. If it uses electricity as the medium for manipulating information, it is almost surely electronic. Electrical and Electronic devices are comprised of different but overlapping categories but, in short, all electronic devices are also electrical devices, it is a subset.

Sources: Dummies, StackExchange, All About Circuits

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