CHAPTER 1 Circuit Variables

CHAPTER CONTENTS
1.1 Electrical Engineering: An Overview
1.2 The International System of Units
1.3 Circuit Analysis: An Overview
1.4 Voltage and Current
1.5 The Ideal Basic Circuit Element
1.6 Power and Energy

CHAPTER OBJECTIVES
△ Understand and be able to use SI units and the standard prefixes for powers of 10.

△ Know and be able to use the definitions of voltage and current.

△ Know and be able to use the definitions of power and energy.

△ Be able to use the passive sign convention to calculate the power for an ideal basic circuit
element given its voltage and current

1.1 Electrical Engineering: An Overview

△ Electrical engineering is the profession concerned with systems that produce, transmit, and
measure electric signals.
△ Electrical systems pervade our lives;

△ They are found in homes, schools, workplaces, and transportation vehicles everywhere.

Five major classifications of electrical systems are:

† communication systems
In a telephone system, a microphone turns sound waves into electric signals.
Switching center combines the signals from tens, hundreds, or thousands of other telephones.
Signals are sent through wires in underground coaxial cables to a microwave transmission station.

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 Signals are broadcast from a transmission antenna via a
communications satellite, to a receiving antenna.
The microwave receiving station translates the microwave
signals for further transmission, perhaps as pulses of light
to be sent through fiber-optic cable.
On arrival at the switching center, the combined signals
are separated, and each is routed to the appropriate
telephone, where an earphone acts as a speaker to
convert the received electric signals back into sound
waves.

† computer systems
Use electric signals to process information
From pocket calculators to personal computers to
supercomputers
Such complex tasks as processing weather data and
modeling chemical interactions of complex organic
molecules.
Include networks of microcircuits, or integrated circuits
Sized assemblies of hundreds, thousands, or millions of electrical components that often operate
at speeds and power levels close to fundamental physical limits, including the speed of light and
the thermodynamic laws

† control systems
Use electric signals to regulate processes. Examples include the control of temperatures,
pressures, and flow rates in an oil refinery; the fuel-air mixture in a fuel-injected automobile
engine;
Mechanisms such as the motors, doors, and lights in elevators; and the locks in the Panama
Canal.
The autopilot and auto landing systems that help to fly and land airplanes are also familiar control
systems.

† power systems
Generate and distribute electric power.
Electric power, which is the foundation of our technology-based society, usually is generated in
large quantities by nuclear, hydroelectric, and thermal (coal-, oil-, or gas-fired) generators.
Power is distributed by a grid of conductors that crisscross the country.

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 A major challenge in designing and operating such a system is to provide sufficient redundancy
and control so that failure of any piece of equipment does not leave a city, state, or region
completely without power

† signal-processing systems
Act on electric signals that represent information.
Transform the signals and the information into a more
suitable form.
Many different ways to process the signals and their
information.
For example, image-processing systems gather massive
quantities of data from orbiting weather satellites, reduce
the amount of data to a manageable level, and transform
the remaining data into a video image for the evening
news broadcast.
A computerized tomography (CT) scan is another example of
an image-processing system.

The pilot and the air traffic controller to monitor the plane’s
location, design a safe flight path and enabling the pilot to
keep the plane on its designated path.

Circuit Theory
An electric circuit is a mathematical model that approximates
the behavior of an actual electrical system.
Circuit theory is a special case of electromagnetic field theory
under three basic assumptions.
1. Electrical effects happen instantaneously throughout a system. (A system that is small enough
so that we can make this assumption is called a lumped-parameter system.)
2. The net charge on every component in the system is always zero.
3. There is no magnetic coupling between the components in a system.
A good rule is the: If the dimension of the system is (or smaller) of the dimension of the wavelength,
you have a lumped-parameter system. Otherwise, electromagnetic field theory to analyze that
system should be used.
Throughout this book we study circuits derived from lumped-parameter systems.

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General Problem-solving Procedures
1. Identify what’s given and what’s to be found.
2. Sketch a circuit diagram or other visual model.
3. Think of several solution methods and decide on a way of choosing among them.
4. Calculate a solution.
5. Use your creativity.
6. Test your solution.
You may need to skip, change the order of, or elaborate on certain steps to solve a particular
problem.

1.2 The International System of Units

International System of Units (abbreviated SI) is used by all the major engineering societies and
most engineers throughout the world.

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1.3 Circuit Analysis: An Overview
All engineering designs begin with a need.
The design specifications allow us to assess whether or not the design actually meets the need.
The concept for the design derives from a
complete understanding of the design
specifications coupled with an insight into the
need, which comes from education and
experience.
Translate the concept into a mathematical model.
A commonly used mathematical model for
electrical systems is a circuit model which is
comprised by ideal circuit components.
The tools of circuit analysis are applied to the
circuit to predict the behavior of the circuit model
and its ideal circuit components.
The physical prototype is an actual electrical
system, constructed from actual electrical
components.
Through comparisons, refinements may be
needed to the physical prototype, the circuit
model, or both. Eventually, this iterative process
may produce a design that accurately matches the
design specifications and thus meets the need.
The ability to model actual electrical systems with ideal circuit elements which can be described by
the mathematical equations, makes circuit theory extremely useful to engineers.

1.4 Voltage and Current

The concept of electric charge is the basis for describing all electrical phenomena.
† The charge is bipolar, meaning that electrical effects are described in terms of positive and
negative charges.
† The electric charge exists in discrete quantities, which are integral multiples of the electronic
charge, 1.6022 ×10–19 C.
† Electrical effects are attributed to both the separation of charge and charges in motion.

The separation of charge creates an electric force (voltage), and the motion of charge creates an
electric fluid (current).
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Whenever positive and negative charges are separated, energy is expended. Voltage is the energy
per unit charge created by the separation.

Definition of voltage

The rate of charge flow is known as the electric current

Definition of current

A component can be modelled strictly in terms of the voltage and current at its terminals. Thus two
physically different components could have the same relationship between the terminal voltage and
terminal current. If they do, for purposes of circuit analysis, they are identical.

1.5 The Ideal Basic Circuit Element

An ideal basic circuit element has three attributes:
(1) it has only two terminals, which are points of connection to other circuit components;
(2) it is described mathematically in terms of current and/or
voltage; and
(3) It cannot be subdivided into other elements. We use the word
ideal to imply that a basic circuit element does not exist as a
realizable physical component
The interpretation of these references given positive or negative numerical values of v and i is
summarized in Table 1.4.

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The most widely used sign convention applied to these references is called the passive sign
convention.

Passive sign convention

1.6 Power and Energy

△ Power and energy calculations also are important in circuit analysis.

△ The useful output of the system often is nonelectrical, and this output is conveniently expressed
in terms of power or energy.
△ Another reason is that all practical devices have limitations on the amount of power that they
can handle.
Power is the time rate of expending or absorbing energy.

Definition of power

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Based on the correct application and interpretation of
the passive sign convention, we are able to tell from
our calculation whether power is being delivered to
the pair of terminals or extracted from it.

Summary
The International System of Units (SI) enables engineers to communicate in a meaningful way about
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quantitative results. Table 1.1 summarizes the base SI units; Table 1.2 presents some useful derived
SI units.
Circuit analysis is based on the variables of voltage and current.
Voltage is the energy per unit charge created by charge separation and has the SI unit of volt (v =
dv/dq).
Current is the rate of charge flow and has the SI unit of ampere (i = dq/dt).
The ideal basic circuit element is a two-terminal component that cannot be subdivided; it can be
described mathematically in terms of its terminal voltage and current.
The passive sign convention uses a positive sign in the expression that relates the voltage and
current at the terminals of an element when the reference direction for the current through the
element is in the direction of the reference voltage drop across the element.
Power is energy per unit of time and is equal to the product of the terminal voltage and current; it
has the SI unit of watt (p = dw/dt = vi).
The algebraic sign of power is interpreted as follows:
† If p > 0, power is being delivered to the circuit or circuit component.

† If p < 0, power is being extracted from the circuit or circuit component.

Assignment
習題節碼
學號尾碼
1.2 1.4 1.5〜1.6
0 2 7 12, 22, 32
1 3 8 13, 23, 33
2 4 9 14, 24, 34
3 5 10 15, 25, 35
4 6 11 16, 26, 34
5 5 10 17, 27, 33
6 4 9 18, 28, 32
7 3 8 19, 29, 31
8 2 7 20, 30, 35
9 1 11 21, 31, 34

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