Stuff that blew my mind

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A zener diode can act like a normal diode when it is forward biased

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Seems kinda obvious now that I think about it.

  

[g1]

The 'original' zener was just a defective regular diode.  Someone very smart realized it could be controlled and utilized.  Like a lot of discoveries, I guess. 
Always analyze your mistakes. 

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Thanks guys
I'm gonna use this thread to post stuff that I was surprised to learn.

Like how a dc power supply is a ground to ac.

 

[J M Fahey]

The 'original' zener was just a defective regular diode.  Someone very smart realized it could be controlled and utilized.  Like a lot of discoveries, I guess. 
Always analyze your mistakes. 

Hey, Penicillin came out of moldy bread 

First Vaccin (smallpox) came out of a rural Doctor noticing that girls milking cows caught a "light" version of Smallpox, including (small) scars, but never ever got the "real" one.

Observation and deduction is everything.

May remember wrong, but Zeners came out of WAY overdoped regular diodes.