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Electric Circuits Flashcards

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19 views3 pages

Electric Circuits Flashcards

Uploaded by

Ash
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Electric circuits flashcards

Definitions :

Electric current – rate of flow of charged particles, flow of charge per unit of time. I = q/t

Potential Difference: energy transferred per unit of charge between two points in a circuit

V = W/Q

Resistance – measure of how difficult it is for charge carriers to pass through a component. R= V/I

Ohm’s Law – a law stating that electric current is proportional to voltage and inversely proportional
to resistance

Principle of charge conservation – states that total electric charge in a closed circuit does not change

Kirchoffs First Law – the total current flowing into a junction is equal to the current flowing out of
that junction

Distribution of current in a series circuit: current is the same anywhere

Distribution of current in a parallel circuit – the sum of the current in each parallel set of branches
are equal to the total current.

Principle of conservation of energy states that energy cannot be created or destroyed but can be
transformed from one form to another

Kirchoffs Second Law – the sum of all the voltages in a series circuit is equal to the battery voltage or
the sum of all the voltages in a loop is zero.

Distribution of potential difference in a series circuit – the battery pd is shared across all elements,
total sum of the voltages across the elements equal to the supply PD

Distribution of potential difference in a parallel circuit – the potential difference across each branch
is the same.

Combining Resistances in a series circuit – Rt = R1 + R2 + R3

You can derive this from saying that

V1 = IR1 V2 = IR2 V3=IR3

Applying kirchoffs second law – sum of the voltages in a series circuit is equal to the supply voltage.

V = V1 + V2 + V3

Copy PMT

Combining resistances in a parallel circuit – 1/rt = 1/r1 +1/r2

Copy PMT
Power: the energy transferred over time or the rate of transfer of energy. P = VI

Other power equations: W=PT

W=VIT

Derived power equations

- P = I2R
- P = V2/R

Current-voltage graph of an ohmic conductor: straight line through the origin as this component
follows ohms law

Semiconductor Diode – picture

Filament bulb – component contains a length of metal wire, which heats up as current increases,
therefore resistance of this component increases as current increases. For low currents, ohms law is
obeyed

Thermistor – opposite way to a filament bulb because it heats up due to an increase in current,
resistance across will decrease.

Why will the resistance decrease in a filament bulb – increasing temperature of a thermistor causes
electrons to be emitted from atoms, therefore the number of charge carriers increases and so
current increases causing resistance to decrease.

Resistivity: how easily a material conducts electricity. P = RA/L

Current passing through a conductor can be calculated using I = nqva

All components of I = NQVA

I = current

N= number of charged particles travelling across the conductor (carrier charge density)

V = velocity (average speed) drift velocity

A = charge – charge a single charged particle carries is 1.6 x 10^-19


Why does potential increase as resistance increases?

As the length of the wire increases, the resistance will proportionally increase. Using Ohms law V=IR,
as resistance increases, the potential will also increase. Potential along a uniform current-carrying
wire increases uniformly with the distance along it

Potential divider: a circuit which contains two components in series

Potential divider equation = Vout = R2 X VIN/R1 + R2

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