PH4B Lecture 10: Current and Resistance

2024

Learning Goals
In this lecture we will:

• Learn to relate current to the flow of charges

• Derive basic rules and relationships regarding current in circuits

Big picture skills that we will practice include:

• Challenging our intuition by applying physical laws

1 Capacitor Circuits
In the last lecture we learned that capacitors in series can be replaced by an equivalent capacitor Cs where
1 1 1
= + + ...
Cs C1 C2
Capcitors in parallel can be replaced by an equivalent capacitro Cp where:

Cp = C1 + C2 + ...

We also learned a few general rules for circuits:

1. A battery will maintain its given voltage between its two terminals regardless of the other elements connected
to it.

2. The potential between any two points along a wire will be the same.
3. The total potential difference around any loop in a circuit is 0. This is a direct consequence of the fact that
an electric field is conservative: Z
∆V = E ⃗ · d⃗l
I
0= ⃗ · d⃗l = ∆Vloop
E

This last rule is called Kirchoff ’s loop rule and it will be important going forward.

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Capacitors in series
When capacitors are in series, the reciprocal of the equivalent capacitance is the sum of the reciprocals of the
individual capacitances. For example, in the following figure
1 1 1 1
= + +
Cs C1 C2 C3

Capacitors in parallel

When capacitors are in parallel, their equivalent capacitance is the sum of individual capacitances. So for the
example above,
Cp = C1 + C2 + C3

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Capacitor circuit
A circuit consisting only of capacitors is shown above. Find the charge on all of the capacitors.

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.

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Current
Electrical current, I, is defined as the rate of change of charge that flows through a given area:
dQ
I=
dt
The units of current are Amperes, A, which is equivalent to a Coulomb per second. The average current is given by
∆Q
Iavg =
∆t

Mini-exercise: Current through hoop

In each of the 4 examples above, charges are flowing through a small hoop. In scenario A the charges move
through the hoop with speed v. In scenario B they move with speed 2v but otherwise are identical to A. In scenario
C they move with speed v and area of the hoop is twice as much as the area of the hoop in B and A. In scenario D
the number of charges is half that of A-C, and they move at speed v.
Rank scenarios A-D by the magnitude of current passing through the hoop.

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Exercise Current through hoop 2

In scenarios A-E, charges are flowing through a hoop. All charges have equal magnitude but may have opposite
sign, and all charges have the same speed but may travel different directions.
Rank scenarios A-E by the amount of current flowing through the hoop. Take positive current to be to the
right.

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Conduction

Current in Circuits
The most common context involving current, both in this course and real life applications, is current in circuits.
As we saw above, because current is defined as dq dt , positive current corresponds to the flow of positive charge OR
the reverse flow of negative charge. In the materials used for circuits the mobile charges are negatively charged
electrons, so the current flows in the opposite direction of electron motion.
When we draw circuits there are some common symbols to familiarize yourself with. The battery symbol below
with the V next to it tells you that the potential difference between the positive and negative side of the battery
is V ; the battery will maintain this potential difference between these two points (unless you’re told otherwise).
The resistor symbol tells you that there is a resistor, a conductor which resists the flow of charge. R gives you the
value of the resistance. The other straight lines of the circuit are wires, assumed to be very good conductors (again
unless told otherwise).

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Resistance
We discussed above how in good conductors electrons are free to jump around from atom to atom, and so if
you apply a potential difference to a conductor charges will flow as current. But this isn’t a perfect process: charge
carriers can scatter, causing them to flow less efficiently. The scattering can come off of other charge carriers, off
of impurities in the material, or off of vibrations in the material.

Resistivity, ρ is a measure of this tendency to oppose current flow for a given material; for example, copper
has a resistivity of 1.68×10− 8 Ωm. Good conductors like metals have low resistivity that gets higher with temper-
ature, due to more vibrations in the material at higher temperatures.

Resistance is a measure of the tendency to oppose current for a given object or device. For example, a very
thin copper wire will have higher resistance than a wide copper wire, despite being made of the same material. In
”ideal” materials, the resistance is related to resistivity by: R = ρL
A where L is the length of the conductor and A
is the area.

Resistors are conducting devices whose role in a circuit is to resist the flow of current. This can serve many
functions: current regulation, dissipating power as heat or light, or controlling the time it takes for charges to move
in the circuit, etc.

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Mini-Exercise: Simple Circuit

In the simple circuit above, a battery of voltage V is connected to a resistor.

A) What direction does current flow?

B) In previous classes, we used that the potential difference in a conductor is 0. Why then can the battery maintain
a non-zero potential difference between its terminals?
C) Rank the current flowing through the wire at the 3 points A-C shown.

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Rules for circuits with resistors
There are a handful of rules that are very useful for analyzing circuits with resistors, and circuits generally. We’ll
later learn techniques involving ”equivalent resistors” and other tools to help us analyze circuits, but ultimately
they all come from these few general rules:
1. Kirchoff ’s junction rule states that he current flowing into a ”node” of a circuit must be the same as the
current flowing out of it. This is a direct consequence of the conservaton of charge. Mathematically is usually
stated as: X X
Iin = Iout (1)
or equivalently, if we take current flowing in to have opposite sign of the current flowing out,
X
Ii = 0

2. Kirchoff ’s loop rule Kirchoff’s loop rule tells us that around any loop in a circuit, the total potential dif-
ference is 0.

3. Ohm’s Law The third rule we will need is Ohm’s Law which you may be familiar with from lab:

V = IR (2)

This tells us that the voltage drop across a resistor is equal to the current flowing through the resistor
multiplied by it’s resistance. This makes intuitive sense with the loose definition of resistance; for the same
applied voltage, a higher resistance resistor will have less current flowing through it.

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Resistors in series
Rules for resistors connected in series:
1. Resistors in series, with no junctions between them, must have the same current flowing through them.
This is a consequence of the conservation of charge.
2. The equivalent resistance of resistors connected in series is the sum of the resistances:

Rs = R1 + R2 + ...

Exercise: Resistors in Series

For the above problem, take V = 6 V, R1 = 1Ω, R2 = 2Ω, R3 = 3Ω.

A) Find the equivalent resistance of the three resistors.

B) Find the current and voltage drop across each of the three resistors.

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Resistors in parallel
Rules for resistors connected in parallel:
1. Elements of a circuit that are in parallel will have the same voltage drop across them.
2. The currents from elements of the circuit in parallel will add according to Kirchoff’s junction rule.

3. The reciprocal of the equivalent resistance of resistors connected in parallel is the sum of the reciprocal of the
resistances:
1/Rs = 1/R1 + 1/R2 + ...

Exercise: Resistors in Parallel

For the above problem, take V = 6 V, R1 = 1Ω, R2 = 2Ω.
A) Find the equivalent resistance of the two resistors.
B) Find I1 , I2 , V1 , V2 , and I.

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