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An Extended Frame for Thevenin (Norton) Theorem

Summary: The Helmholtz-Thevenin-Norton theorem is widely used in circuit calculations.  However, it also is an important "junction" of some topics deserving heuristic (re)consideration.  The need for such a discussion arose because of a recent focusing (E. Gluskin and A. Patlakh, “An ideal source as an equivalent one-port", Far East Journal of Electronics and Communication, vol. 5, no. 2. (2010) pp. 79-89.) on a specific circuit topology that is usually (and rather unjustly) ignored.  It is stressed that if the equivalent active 1-port is a load of an external active circuit, then the latter circuit sees the 1-port as a nonlinear resistor.  This observation can be associated with the necessity of detailed discussion of nonlinear resistors already at an early educational stage, which agrees with the position of Desoer and Kuh (C.A. Desoer and E.S. Kuh, Basic Circuit Theory, McGraw Hill, Tokyo, 1969), ignored in many standard textbooks.

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Emanuel Glustin, Electrical Engineering Departments of the ORT Braude College, the Kinneret Academic College on the Sea of Galilee, and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel