CHAPTER 12

PRACTICAL CIRCUITS
1. Internal Resistance
 For a power supply :
this may be due to the wires and component inside

 For a cell:
Due to the chemical with in

The experiment show that the voltage across the

terminals of power supply depends on the circuit of
which it is part, the voltage across the power supply
terminals decrease if it required to supply more current
 We are representing a cell as
if it were a perfect cell of
e.m.f E, internal resistance r
and an external resisntance
R

The combined resistance of the circuit is thus R + r, we can

write :

E = IR + Ir

e.m.f
Lost volts

Terminal p.d
2. The effect of internal resistance
 We cannot ignore the effect of internal resistance.

 For example. A battery of e.m.f 3,0volt of internal resistance

1Ω
 The maximum current that can be drawn from this battery is
when its terminals are shorted-out

 The maximum current is given by

3. Potential divider
 How can we get an output of 3,0 Volt from a battery of e.m.f
6,0 volt?
 To do this, we use an arrangment of resistors called a
potential divider

 The output
voltage depends
on the relative
values of the R1
and R2