Just exploring the idea of positive versus negative voltage. When the switch is set to the diode path, negative voltage can't develop on either side of the voltage source. The software is forced to represent the AC power as a series of intermittent positive voltages alternating between one side of the source and the other. But as the current through the resistor shows, this alternative method of representation makes no difference to what's actually happening in the circuit. They are just two different ways of understanding the same underlying phenomenon. So is either more "true" than the other? How exactly do we distinguish between the phenomenon and our understanding of that phenomenon? I'm a firm believer in Truth and objectivity, but sometimes thinking about questions like these makes my head hurt.
