Ideal operational amplifiers: a circuit for which gain still matters

Presented here is a simple circuit involving ideal operational amplifiers that we have not located in any standard electronics textbook. Analyzing it using standard methods leads to an indeterminacy that can only be resolved by re-examining the jundamental assumption of infinite gain associated with such amplifiers. A re-examination of standard assumptions in an altered context is always educational, in this case for undergraduate students of electronic circuits. A proposed use for this circuit as a reliability tool is also discussed, and its associated analysis is an instructive exercise in itself.