Learning How Electronic Parts Work (Part 2)

As you guys know, I've been on a mission to learn how electronic parts work. As an engineer, I have a decent knowledge of certain parts of electronics but I always want to know more. What makes the leviton switches work? How do circuit breaks happen? Why does the amount of voltage matter? I thought I did a pretty good job explaining in part 1 but wanted to clear a few things up.

I noticed that in my post "Learning How Electronic Parts Work" that I neglected to compare my model to reality. I thought I had better rectify this situation because a year from now I will forget what I did and have to reconstruct my arguments. There was more algebra involved than I anticipated. I used Mathcad to perform my analysis and modeling. The figures shown below are all screenshots from my Mathcad model.

Figure 1 shows my logarithm function model (I call it the prototype) and the Maxim representation of their part characteristics, which they specify as the slope and intercept of a line on a semilog plot.

Figure 1: Logarithm Prototype Function and Maxim Empirical Model.

Figure 2 shows how I have beaten Maxim's semilog data into the more conventional logarithmic function form.

Figure 2: Conversion of Maxim Semilog Model to Logarithm Function.

Figure 3 shows the results of my model converted to a standard logarithm function form.

Figure 3: My Model Converted to Conventional Logarithmic Function.

The Maxim specifications and my Mathcad model are in good agreement (thank goodness). You may notice that there is a lot of algebra associated with the use of decibels. Even though I am an electrical engineer and I have to use decibels all day, I really do not like decibels. I am forced to deal with them because that is how electrical systems are specified. I do all my calculations in Mathcad, which helps me keep all my units and logarithmic scalings straight.