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What are the practical differences between a constant current and a constant voltage source? Why would you want one over the other?

Constant voltage sources are a lot more commonly seen than constant current sources. In many (maybe almost all) real circuit designs, you want to have some kind of well-defined voltage no matter what load (resistance) you put across it. This kind of thing is provided (to a very good approximation in reality) by a battery or power supply. One sees current sources a lot less often, but they are used as components of some circuit designs (possibly we will see some later).



Kate Scholberg 2017-01-12