Adams or Amend sure. But Trudeau?
This might be a first — the appearance of (which is clearly supposed to be) Thevenin and Norton equivalents in a mainstream comic strip.
Take a look.
He’s even right. A circuit of sources and resistors with only two external terminals can be collapsed down down to two forms, all three of which will yield identical results when you take measurements from those terminals.
The key measurements are the open-circuit voltage (Voc) across the terminals and the short-circuit current (Isc) through the terminals. From those you calculate the Thevenin resistance RT = Voc/Isc.
The Thevenin form is an ideal voltage source of Voc in series with RT with the external terminals being connected to the “free” end of RT and the “free” end of the voltage source. The Norton form is an ideal current source of Isc in parallel with RT and the external terminals being connected across RT.
So indeed, even when nothing is connected to the terminals, the Norton form will be pumping current through the resistor while the Thevenin form will be quiescent. So Alex is quite right that the Norton form will be warmer.