Dictionary of Audio Terminology - Y
Y – (1) The electronic symbol for admittance - the inverse of impedance. (2) Abbreviation for luminance (black & white) video signal. (3) atomic symbol for yttrium - my absolute favorite element, next to ytterbium.
YAG (yttrium-aluminum-garnet) - A type of solid-state laser. Compare with YIG.
Yagi antenna - Shortened form of Yagi-Uda antenna, a linear end-fire array consisting of a driven element, a reflector element, and one or more director elements -- your basic TV antenna. [named after Hidetsugu Yagi (1886-1976), laboratory director of Shintaro Uda, professor at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan.]
y-axis - The vertical axis of a two-dimensional Cartesian coordinate system, or one of three axes in a three-dimensional Cartesian coordinate system.
YB (yottabyte) - The number of bytes represented by 2 raised to the 80th power, i.e., 1,208,925,819,614,629,174,706,176 bytes.
Yb - The atomic symbol for the element ytterbium.
Y/C video - See S-video.
Y-connector or Y-cord - A three-wire circuit that is star connected. Also spelled wye-connector. It is okay to use a Y-connector to split an audio signal from an output to drive two inputs; it is not okay to use a Y-connector to try and sum or mix two signals together to drive one input.
y-cut - A method of cutting a quartz plate for an oscillator, with the y-axis of the crystal perpendicular to the faces of the plate. Contrast with x-cut.
Yellow Book - Nickname for the Philips and Sony's ECMA-130 standard document that defines the format for CD-ROM (compact disc-read only memory) discs; available only to licensees. Compare with Red Book and Green Book
Yerges, Lyle F. - (1918-1985) American engineer, technical author and editor, specialized in acoustical performance of architectural elements. Author of Sound, Noise & Vibration Control, originally published in 1969, revised in 1978, and still in print.
Yield - The number of devices that work as planned, specified as a percentage of the total number actually fabricated. Normally used to quantify a run of integrated circuits.
yield strength - The magnitude of mechanical stress at which a material will begin to deform.
YIG (yttrium-iron-garnet) - A crystalline material used in microwave devices. Compare with YAG.
yipper cable - Nickname for a component video cable based on the YPbPr color space. Since saying "YPbPr" is difficult, "yipper" was coined as an alternative.
yoctosecond - Abbr ys or ysec One septillionth (10-24) of a second.
yoke - (1) Any magnetic core interconnection material. (2) The deflection windings of a CRT. (3) A series of two or more magnetic recording heads fastened securely together for playing or recording on more than one track simultaneously.
Yottahertz - Abbr. YHz One septillion (1024) hertz.
Young's modulus - Abbr E (Also know as elastic modulus.) A measure of the stiffness of a given material. "For a solid, it is the ratio of the longitudinal stress to the longitudinal stain in the same direction, when a rod of the material is stretched by a small amount along its axis and allowed to contract freely transverse to the axis."
Young, Thomas - (1773-1829) British scientist best known for his modulus.
Young waves - Longitudinal waves that propagate in a uniform bar of solid material with stress-free sides.
ytterbrium - Named after Ytterby (a town in Sweden) ... "Ytterbium metal increases its electrical resistivity when subjected to high stresses. This property is used in stress gauges to monitor ground deformations from earthquakes and explosions."
YUV video - The coding process used in CD-I in which the luminance signal (Y) is recorded at full bandwidth on each line and chroma values (U and V) are recorded at half bandwidth on alternate lines.
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