K7ITM wrote:

OK, noted, but your definition doesn't match what I was taught and
what is in the Wikipedia definition at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phasor_(electronics).
What I was taught, and what I see at that URL, is that the PHASOR is
ONLY the representation of phase and amplitude--that is, ONLY the
A*exp(j*phi). To me, what you guys are calling a phasor is just a
rotating vector describing the whole signal. To me, the value of
using a phasor representation is that it takes time out of the
picture. See also http://people.clarkson.edu/~svoboda/.../Phasor10.html,
which defines the phasor very clearly as NOT being a function of time
(assuming things are in steady-state). But in my online search, I
also find other sites that, although they don't bother to actually
define the phasor, show it as a rotating vector. Grrrr. I'll try to
remember to check the couple of books I have that would talk about
phasors to see if I'm misrepresenting them, but I'm pretty sure they
are equally explicit in defining a phasor as a representation of ONLY
the phase and magnitude of the sinusoidal signal, and NOT as a vector
that rotates synchronously with the sinewave.

Tom,

I'm sure a lot of people forget the derivation of a phasor after using
it for a while, just as they do so many other things.

Again, a phasor is a complex representation of a real sinusoidal
function and, as such, definitely has a time varying component. That the
component isn't written doesn't mean it's not there. By all means, check
your texts. I'm sure that any decent circuit analysis text has a
serviceable development of the subject.

I always cringe when I see wikipedia quoted as a reference -- I was
referred to an entry regarding transmission lines some time ago, and it
contained some pretty major misconceptions. That leads me to mistrust it
when looking up a topic which I don't have a good grasp of. I don't have
a full understanding of the process by which it's written, but it seems
that all participants in this newsgroup are equally qualified to create
or modify a wikipedia entry. How could that result in a reliable reference?

Roy Lewallen, W7EL