Electrical Engineering I/II

Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering

Nepal Polytechnic Institute
Bharatpur, Chitwan
Concept of electric charges

• Electric charge is an intrinsic characteristic of the

fundamental particles making up those objects; that is, it is a property
that comes automatically with those particles wherever they exist.
• Two types- Positive and negative charge
Charges with the same electrical sign repel each other, and charges
with opposite electrical signs attract each other
• Unit: coulomb (C)
• Charge of an electron (e) = 1.6 × 10−19 coulomb

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Electric current
• The rate of flow of an electric charge is known as electric current

• Unit of electric current: ampere(A)

• 1 ampere = 1 coulomb/second

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Electric circuit and Circuit Elements
• An element is the basic building block of a circuit. An electric circuit is simply an interconnection
of the elements.
• A simple electric circuit is shown in Fig. 1.1. It consists of three basic
components: a battery, a lamp, and connecting wires.
There are two types of elements found in electric circuits:
passive elements and active elements. An active element is capable
of generating energy while a passive element is not.
Examples of passive elements
are resistors, capacitors, and inductors. Typical active elements include
generators, batteries, and operational amplifiers.

• Circuit analysis is the process of determining voltages across (or the

currents through) the elements of the circuit.

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Ohms Law
• The current flowing through a conductor is directly proportional to the voltage
across the conductor ,provided the temperature across the conductor remains
the same.
OR
The voltage v across a resistor is directly proportional to the current i flowing
through the resistor. That is,
v∝i
or, v=iR
Where, R is known as resistance of the conductor.
It has unit ohm (Ω)

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Resistance and Resitivity
• Resistance R may be defined as the property of a substance due
to which it opposes (or restricts) the flow of electricity
(i.e., electrons) through it. It has unit ohm (Ω)
• A conductor is said to have a resistance of one ohm if it
permits one ampere current to flow through it when one volt is applied across
its terminals.
• A resistor that obeys Ohm’s law is known as a linear resistor.4
It has a constant resistance and thus its current-voltage characteristic is
as illustrated in Fig. 2.7(a): its i-v graph is a straight line passing through the
origin.
• A nonlinear resistor does not obey Ohm’s law. Its resistance varies
with current and its i-v characteristic is typically shown in Fig. 2.7(b).

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Laws of Resistance
• The resistance R offered by a conductor depends on the following
factors :
(i) It varies directly as its length, l.
(ii) It varies inversely as the
cross-section A of the conductor.
(iii) It depends on the nature
of the material.
(iv) It also depends on the
temperature of the conductor.

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Laws of Resistance
• Neglecting the last factor, we can say that

where ρ is a constant depending on the nature of the material of the

conductor and is known as its specific resistance or resistivity.

If in Eq. (i), we put

l = 1 metre and A = 1 metre2, then R = ρ
Hence, specific resistance of a material may be defined as the resistance between
the opposite faces of a metre cube of that material.

• Specific resistance or Resistivity may be defined as the resistance of a conductor of a unit length and a unit cross section.
The unit of resistivity is ohm-metre (Ω-m)

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Laws of Resistance

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Laws of Resistance

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Laws of Resistance
• Example: The resistivity of a ferric-chromium-aluminium alloy is 51 × 10−8 Ω-m. A sheet of the material is
15 cm long, 6 cm wide and 0.014 cm thick. Determine resistance between (a) opposite ends and (b) opposite
sides.

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Conductance and Conductivity

• Conductance (G) is reciprocal of resistance. Whereas resistance of a conductor

measures the opposition which it offers to the flow of current, the conductance
measures the inducement which it offers to its flow.
1
i.e. G=
𝑅

• where σ is called the conductivity or specific conductance of a conductor. It is the

reciprocal of resistivity.
• The unit of conductance is siemens (S)
• The unit of conductivity is siemens/metre (S/m)

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Temperature Coefficient of Resistance
• Let a metallic conductor having a resistance of R0 at 0°C be heated of
t°C and let its resistance at this temperature be Rt. Then it is found
that the increase in resistance Δ R = Rt -R0 depends

• where α (alpha) is a constant and is known as the temperature

coefficient of resistance of the conductor.

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Temperature Coefficient of Resistance
• If

• Hence, temperature coefficient of resistance may be defined as the increase in

resistance per unit original resistance per unit degree rise in temperature.
• From Eq. (i), we find that Rt = R0 (1 + α t)
• Value of α at Different Temperatures
It is found that value of α itself is not constant but depends on the initial
temperature on which the increment in resistance is based.
Suppose a conductor of resistance R0 at 0°C is heated to t°C . Its resistance Rt after
heating is given by

let α1= tempt. coeff. at t1°C ; α2 = tempt. coeff. at t2°C. Then,

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Variations of Resistivity with Temperature

• Not only resistance but specific resistance or resistivity of metallic

conductors also increases with rise in temperature and vice-versa

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Temperature coefficient of resistance
• Example 1: A copper conductor has its specific resistance of 1.6 × 10-6
ohm-cm at 0°C and a resistance temperature coefficient of 1/254.5
per °C at 20°C. Find (i) the specific resistance and (ii) the resistance
temperature coefficient at 60°C.

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Temperature coefficient of resistance
• Example 2: A platinum coil has a resistance of 3.146 Ω at 40°C and
3.767 Ω at 100°C. Find the resistance at 0°C and the temperature-
coefficient of resistance at 40°C.

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Temperature coefficient of resistance
• Example 3: A potential difference of 250 V is applied to a field winding
at 15°C and the current is 5 A. What will be the mean temperature of
the winding when current has fallen to 3.91 A, applied voltage being
constant. Assume α15 = 1/254.5

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Practice Problems
1. It is found that the resistance of a coil of wire increases from 40
ohm at 15°C to 50 ohm at 60°C.Calculate the resistance
temperature coefficient at 0°C of the conductor material
Ans: [1/165 per °C]
2. Calculate the resistance of 100 m length of a wire having a uniform
cross-sectional area of 0.1 mm2 if the wire is made of manganin
having a resistivity of 50 × 10-8 Ω-m. Ans: [500 Ω]
3. The resistance of a conductor 1 mm2 in cross-section and 20 m long
is 0.346 Ω. Determine the specific resistance of the conducting
material. Ans: [1.73 × 10−8 Ω-m]
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