Gain
Gain turns up in 2 fields: electricians, electronics. Here is what it means to the people in each one.
Gain in electricians
Length saved because conduit turns around a curve instead of a sharp corner, used when cutting pipe to length.
Gain is the difference between the conduit actually used in a 90-degree bend and the length the two legs would add up to if they met at a square corner. Because the pipe takes the shortcut around the curve, a run with bends needs less material than its measured legs suggest. Bender charts list the gain for each size, and it matters whenever a piece is cut to length before bending, as in back-to-backs.
"Two ninetys in one-inch, that's twice the gain, so cut the stick shorter than the legs add up to."
Gain in electronics
A measure of a circuit's ability to increase the power or amplitude of a signal.
Gain is the ratio of the output signal to the input signal in an amplifier or system. It is typically expressed in decibels (dB) for power or voltage. A gain greater than one indicates amplification, while a gain less than one indicates attenuation.
"We need to bump up the gain on the input stage to get a clean signal above the noise floor."