A Complex Metaphysical Conundrum

Nice, unequivocal answer there, Jeroen; many thanks.

If you really want to open a can of worms, consider what might happen when you *add* a 2dBmV and a 3dBmV signal together. Granted, dBs weren't invented for making that easy.

Jeroen Belleman

It's not a complex metaphysical conundrum - it is the kind of pedantic exam question set by the sort of lecturer who has a bee in his bonnet about getting the units right. If you sat through his course you'd know what his idea of what the right answer would be.

The rest of us don't have to worry because it doesn't actually matter.

<snip>

Assuming in-phase, that's 8.535dBmV. Wrong tool for the job.

Yes, that's one way of doing it. There are more.

Jeroen Belleman

The sum could be 1 dBmV.

If out of phase, or

If taught by the Nu Mathematics.

It is a logarithmic scale. Increasing by 2dBmV is correctly interpreted as multiplication.

Groetjes Albert

What is -2 volts in dBmV?

It could...

Jeroen Belleman

What's wrong with the mind I already have?

My opinion is in my first reply to you.

Do the students who take this exam do any practical work or just sit in class?

Probably unhandled exception in log function or something like that :)

They're students so of course they don't do anything useful.

Okay, here's the answer you've been waiting for from some guy on the internet in this record-low participation quiz. This URL takes you directly to the relevant section to save time:

So it turns out that John, Edward and myself were all wrong and only Jason and Jeroen were right! And the proof is right there in the video.

Is that because you don't teach them how to do anything useful or because they don't want to be taught how do anything useful?

Silly nonsense. RF people tend to do that. By his reasoning, the actual question is wrong and the increase is impossible.

The question is fuzzy, basicly designed to generate chatter.

I still believe that 3+2=5.

I don't see any proof of anything in the section of the video you posted. I didn't watch the entire video. Maybe you should post the proof for this example in text and ask why a 30 minute video is needed if a few lines of text is enough. DOCSIS isn't my field but I would have thought that the average cable modem could report whether or not it's happy with the signal levels. The ISP/Cable company I use ripped the cable and phone lines out and put fibre to the home into the small town I live in about a year ago. So DOCSIS is history here.

Sorry, you're new here so you don't know who's who yet. I'm not a professor - far from it! And these are hypothetical students.

Sorry, sarcasm doesn't come across very well at all via this medium! John knows what I mean as we're both veterans here. I actually agree with you. The question itself is just plain stupid if the answer suggests that two absolute quantities added together cannot make an absolute total.