1 Electric Current

Current and charge

Electric current is the fow of charged particles, usually electrons, around a circuit.
Metals are good conductors of electricity because they have free electrons that can
move around easily.
Current is measured in amperes, or amps.
Charged particles have a charge which is either positive or negative. The strength of a
charge can be found using the formula:
We can use this formula to dene the coulomb:
!ne coulomb is the amount of charge which fows past a point when a current of
" ampere fows for " second
Electron fow
When you attach a battery to a small bulb with wires, you would say that the current is
fowing from the positive terminal of the battery to the negative one. This is called
conventional current. The electrons, however, fow from the negative terminal to the
positive. This electron fow is in the opposite direction to the conventional current, and
care must be ta#en to not confuse the two. When we $ust say current it is assumed that
we are tal#ing about conventional current.
The reason for this is that the direction of conventional current was chosen before people
#new what was happening inside a conductor when a current fows.
%esistance
&ny component with electrical resistance opposes the fow of an electrical current.
Electrical resistance
'n an electrical circuit, current fows around it. Each component in the circuit has a
resistance, which resists the fow of the current.
The voltage that you get from the power supply can be simply described as the (push(
given to the electrons to go around the circuit.
't would then ma#e sense to say that the greater the voltage, the greater the current,
and the greater the resistance, the lower the current. The current fowing around the
circuit could then be written as the e)uation:
.
*or e+ample, if you were to connect a , volt power supply to a - . /read as - ohm0
resistor, you could use the formula above to nd the current. , so I 1 -A.
& particular arrangement of this formula is used to dene resistance and the ohm.
.
This says that the resistance of a component is the voltage across it for every unit of
current fowing through it. More formally this can be written as:
The resistance of a component in a circuit is the ratio of the voltage across that
component to the current in it.
The unit of resistance, the ohm /.0, is defined so that one ohm is the resistance of a
component that has a voltage of " volt across it for every amp of current fowing through
it. 'n other words, one ohm is one volt per amp.
!hm2s law
'n many components, the voltage across it is proportional to the current fowing through
it. 3ou can ma#e this observation on a circuit with a resistor of a #nown resistance, a
voltmeter, an ammeter, and a power supply with a variable voltage. &s you increase the
voltage, the current will also increase. 3ou will come to the conclusion that, with the
constant of proportionality e)ual to R. This gives us V 1 IR, an arrangement of the
familiar formula.
Components where V I, are #nown as ohmic conductors, and have a constant
resistance. They are said to follow Ohm's law, which states that:
*or a conductor at constant temperature, the current in the conductor is proportional to
the voltage across it.
4ote that not all components are ohmic conductors, and can have varying values of
resistance. 3ou will have to use the formula to nd the resistance for specic values
of V and I.
5elow you can see - graphs with current on the vertical a+is, and voltage on the
hori6ontal a+is. Where the graph is a straight line, the voltage is proportional to the
current. Therefore only the metallic conductor is an ohmic conductor.
& diode and a lament lamp are two e+amples of non-ohmic conductors. The diode is
designed to only allow current through in one direction, hence the use of negative values
on its graph. The lament lamp doesn2t have a constant temperature, which according to
!hm2s law is re)uired for a component to be an ohmic conductor. 'nstead, it heats up as
a current passes through it, which has an e7ect on the resistance.
%esistivity
The resistivity of a material is the property that determines its resistance for a unit
length and unit cross sectional area of that material. Copper, for e+ample, is a better
conductor than lead, and so lead has a higher resistivity than copper. 3ou can compare
di7erent materials in this way.
%esistivity, 8 /rho0, is defined by the e)uation:
Where is resistivity, R is the resistance, A is the cross sectional area of the
material, and l is the length of the material.
The units of resistivity are !hm9meters, m.
'f we rearrange the above e)uation so that:
3ou can see that as the length of a wire is increased, its resistance will
increase, and as the cross sectional area of a wire is increased, its resistance
will decrease. This is true provided that the temperature is constant, and that
the same materials are always used, to ma#e sure that the resistivity stays
the same.
:oltage and energy
Earlier, we simply said that a voltage is the (push( given to electrons, or units of charge.
4ow, we will ta#e a loo# at voltage in terms of energy, and nd a more accurate
denition of the volt.
;otential di7erence
When you attach a voltmeter across a component, the voltage you are measuring is a
potential dierence /p.d.0. Electrical energy is being used up by the component, and
so we can say that a potential di7erence is a voltage where the charge is losing energy.
;otential di7erence has the symbol :.
;otential di7erence is the energy lost per unit charge, and can be written as the following
formula:
Electromotive force
& battery provides a certain voltage to the circuit, and the electrons are gaining energy
from the battery as they fow past. This voltage where the charge gains energy is called
an electromotive force /e.m.f.0, and has the symbol :.
E.m.f. is the energy gained per unit charge, and can be written as the following formula:
5oth the p.d. and e.m.f. are measured in volts, and one volt is e)uivalent to one $oule per
coulomb.
Electrical energy and power
;ower is the rate at which energy is transferred, written as the formula:
To nd a formula for electrical power, we ta#e the following formula for voltage and ma#e
W the sub$ect:
QV W =
Then we need to divide both sides by t to get power:
%ecall that charge divided by time is current, we now have:
*rom the formula above, you can see that the electrical power is simply:
the product of current and voltage.
3ou can combine this with V 1 IR to give a further e)uation:
!ne last formula is for energy and is derived from the
formula for power:
Therefore:
R I P
2
=
! <.C Circuits
Circuit diagrams
=ere are the symbols and names for all of the components that you are re)uired to #now:

>eries circuits
When resistors are set up in series, the formula to wor# out the total resistance is:
% 1 r
"
? r
@
?.... ? r
/n9"0
? r
n
Where r is the individual resistance if a resistor in series.
;arallel circuits
When resistors are set up in parallel, the formula to wor# out the total resistance is:
Where r is the resistance of an individual resistor in parallel.
'nternal resistance
&ll sources of electrical power have internal resistance, we represent this as small
resistor, r contained within the cell:
Thus,
%
total
1 %
n
? r
;otential dividers
& potential /or voltage0 divider is made up of two resistors. The output voltage from a
potential divider will be a proportion of the input voltage and is determined by the
resistor values.
Airchho72s laws
"st Baw states (The sum of the currents /&0 entering a $unction is e)ual to the sum of the
current /&0 leaving the $unction(. This is a conse)uence of conservation of charge.
@nd law states that the e.m.f is e)ual to the voltage of the circuit. This is a conse)uence
of conservation of energy.
Cse of other components
Thermistors can be placed in circuits when temperature plays a role. &s the temperature
increases, the resistance of the device increases. This does not obey the !hms law. Bight
dependent resistors are resistors which decrease in resistance when e+posed to light.
" Electro9Magnetism
*leming2s left hand rule
Cse your thumb, rst and second ngers to point at ,DE to each other: li#e the corner of
a bo+.
*irst nger: *ield
seCond nger: Current
T=umb: T=rust, thuMb: Motion
*ormula
* is the force produced, measured in 4ewtons. ' is current that the magnetic eld is
acting on, measured in &mps. B is the length of the electrical wire.
# Fuantum ;hysics
<oes light behave as a wave or as particlesG
'nterference e+periments, such as 3oung2s >lits, see below, can only be e+plained if we
assume light is a wave.
The photoelectric e7ect can only be e+plained if light is a particle.
>o what is light, particle or waveG
<on2t li#e thisG Het used to it, accept it, it is the current state of our #nowledge.
$oun%'s slits
3oung2s slit is all to do with interference patterns. 'nterference patterns are a feature of
waves. Electrons are particles, you will have been led to believe, but can be observed to
have interference patterns. To get an interference pattern, you must have a wavelength.
This gives more evidence of Wave9particle duality.
&he 'hotoelectric eect
'n analysing the photoelectric e7ect )uantitatively using Einstein2s method, the following
e)uivalent e)uations are used:
Energy of photon = Energy needed to remove an electron + Kinetic energy of the
emitted electron
&lgebraically:
Where:
h is ;lanc#2s constant,
f is the fre)uency of the incident photon,
is the wor# function, or minimum energy re)uired to remove an electron
from atomic binding,
is the ma+imum #inetic energy of e$ected electrons,
f
D
is the threshold fre)uency for the photoelectric e7ect to occur,
m is the rest mass of the e$ected electron, and
v
m
is the velocity of the e$ected electron.
ote: 'f the photon2s energy /hf0 is not greater than the wor# function /I0, no electron will
be emitted. The wor# function is sometimes denoted W.
;lanc# constant
The physicist Ma+ ;lanc# studied a phenomenon #nown as blac#9body radiation, and
found that the transmission of light was best treated as pac#ets of energy called photons.
The energy of a photon, E, is given by the following formula:
Where E is the energy of the photon, h is the ;lanc# constant , and f is the
fre)uency of the light.
The ;hoton model
!ver the ages, scientists have argued what light actually was. 4ewton argued that light
is composed of particles called corpussles and theorised that di7raction was due to the
particles speeding up as they entered a denser medium, being attracted by gravity.
=owever he has since been proved wrong, now we can measure the speed of light and
have proved it to slow down in a denser medium. &lbert Einstein thought that light were
discrete pac#ets of energy which he called )uanta.
Wave9particle duality
'n ",@J, Bouis9:ictor de 5roglie formulated the de 5roglie hypothesis, claiming that all
matter has a wave9li#e natureK he related wavelength, L /lambda0, and momentum, p:
This is a generali6ation of Einstein2s e)uation above since the momentum of a photon is
given by p 1 E M c where c is the speed of light in vacuum, and ! 1 c M ".
<e 5roglie2s formula was conrmed three years later for electrons /which have a rest9
mass0 with the observation of electron di7raction in two independent e+periments. &t the
Cniversity of &berdeen, Heorge ;aget Thomson passed a beam of electrons through a
thin metal lm and observed the predicted interference patterns. &t 5ell Babs Clinton
Noseph <avisson and Bester =albert Hermer guided their beam through a crystalline grid.
( Electro9Magnetic Waves
>tructure
Electromagnetic /EM0 waves are transverse waves that carry energy. This means the light
can be polarised li#e all other transverse waves. <epending on the amount of energy, the
waves create the Electromagnetic >pectrum, comprising /from longest to shortest
wavelengths0 %adio, Microwave, 'nfrared, :isible Bight, Cltraviolet, O9ray, Hamma ray.
Commonly referred to as EM (%adiation,( these waves have wavelengths ranging from
several thousand #ilometers / m0 to sub9picometers / m0.
The wave actually made up of two components which are perpendicular to the direction
of the wave.
EM radiation can be thought of as particles /the photon0 or as waves, which is commonly
referred to as the (Wave9particle duality(.
The >peed of Bight
&ll electromagnetic waves travel at the same speed /in a vacuum0, and that is the
universal constant #nown as the (>peed of Bight,( most often abbreviated by the lower9
case letter (c.(
The speed of light is /e+actly0:
c 1 @,, P,@ JQR m M s or
c 1 ,R- QP" DQS ft M s
The Electro9Magnetic >pectrum
&ype 'roduction )ses *an%ers +avelen%th
,m-
.re/uency
,01-
2amma rays Emitted during
radioactive decay
Chemotherapy Causes cancer
by damaging
cells
+"D
9"@
+"D
@D
3-rays ;roduced by ring
electrons at a
metal target
Medicine for
loo#ing at bones
Causes cancer
by damaging
cells
+"D
9"D
+"D
"R
)ltraviolet Emitted by the
>un
induces the
production of
vitamin < in
the s#in
Can cause
s#in cancer
+"D
9R
+"D
"Q
Visi4le li%ht Emitted by the
>un
'ntense light
can damage
sight
P +"D
9P
to J+"D
9P
+"D
"J
Infra-5ed
Emitted by hot
ob$ects
Conventional
coo#ing
Can burn +"D
9Q
+"D
"@
6icro-waves ;roduced by
changing currents
in a conductor
Microwave
coo#ing and
communications
Can burn +"D
9-
to +"D
9@
+"D
"D
5adio-waves ;roduced by
changing currents
in a conductor
Communication
and media
Currently not
considered to
be ha6ardous
+ " +"D
R
to +"D
"D
Cseful E)uations
To nd out the energy of a particular EM wave or its fre)uency, one can use the several
forms of the Einstein E)uation.
*irst, to determine an EM wave fre)uency, T from its wavelength, L. The wavelength
multiplied by the fre)uency is always a constant value: the speed of light, c. =ence,
c 7 fL
so you can nd the fre)uency from the wavelength, or vice versa from simply
manipulating this relationship.
4e+t, to determine the energy from a smallest )uantity of EM wave /photon0. =ere, we
must introduce another universal )uantity #nown as (;lanc#2s Constant,( most commonly
abbreviated by a lower9case (h.( ;lanc#2s constant is
h 1 S.S@SDSR + "D
9-J
m
@
#gs
$%
.
With this in place we can use the (;lanc# E)uation,( which provides a relationship
between the fre)uency, f and energy E of photon. The relation is as follows:
E 1 h f.
4ow, if we only have the wavelength with which to start, we can manipulate E)uation /"0
to get what we need.
c 1 fL,
f 1 L M c,
E 1 h c M L.