NOT gate facts for kids
A NOT gate is a special kind of logic gate that acts like a digital "flipper." It's also often called an inverter because it takes an input signal and flips it to the exact opposite output.
Imagine you have a light switch. If the light is ON (which we can think of as a "1" in digital language), a NOT gate would make it OFF ("0"). If the light is OFF ("0"), the NOT gate would make it ON ("1"). So, it always gives you the opposite of what you put in!
In the past, especially in the 1900s, these NOT gates were built using single electronic parts called transistors, along with other small components. Later, many NOT gates could be put together into tiny, powerful chips called integrated circuits. These chips are what make our computers and phones work today.
How NOT Gates Work
A NOT gate has only one input and one output. Its main job is to change a digital signal from one state to the other.
- If the input is a "1" (meaning high voltage or "true"), the output will be a "0" (meaning low voltage or "false").
- If the input is a "0" (meaning low voltage or "false"), the output will be a "1" (meaning high voltage or "true").
This simple flipping action is very important in all kinds of digital electronics. It helps computers perform calculations and make decisions by changing signals as needed.
Symbols for NOT Gates
When engineers design electronic circuits, they use special symbols to represent different logic gates. There are three main symbols for the NOT gate, depending on the standard being used:
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| MIL/ANSI Symbol | IEC Symbol | DIN Symbol |
Each symbol shows a triangle with a small circle (often called a "bubble") at the output. The triangle represents the "action" of the gate, and the bubble means "invert" or "negate" the signal.
Related pages
Images for kids
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Voltage transfer curve for a 20 μm inverter. This graph shows how the output voltage changes as the input voltage changes.
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An example of an NPN transistor–transistor logic inverter circuit. This is how a NOT gate can be built using transistors.
See also
In Spanish: Puerta NOT para niños
