Electricity

What is energy?
The ability to do work. There are several different kinds of energy being used to do work.
What kind of energy? q
Chemical - potential or stored energy stored in chemicals, released when the chemicals
react.
An example is wood as a combustion reaction converts chemical energy into light and
heat.

Electrical - energy of charged particles, transferred when they travel from place to place.
Batteries are an example

Mechanical - energy possessed by an object because of its motion or its potential to

move.
Moving our arms is mechanical energy

Thermal - kinetic energy of a substance

Boiling water is an example
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What is static charge?
Most of the time objects and materials are electrically neutral. Sometimes those neutral objects
are given an electric charge by rubbing two objects toegther. By doing this yiu are
passingelectrons from one object to the other casuing that object to no longer have an equal
number of protons and electrons. The elctric chareg is built up on the surface.

What is static electricity?

When you go down a slide, eletrons are passed from yourself to the slide, and as a result, your
hair will have a positive charge
• Objects that have the same charge will repel eachother similar to magnets
When you try to touch the south pole of one magent to the south pole of another magnet
they
will repel eachother
• This is why your hair may stand straight up because your hairs are all positively charged and
are repelling one another
When and object is negatively charged it has built up a static charge
LAWS OF STATIC CHARGES
1. Opposite charges
attract one another
2. Like charges repel
one another
3. Uncharged objects
attract neutral objects
This is because particles can exert a force around themselves called an electric force. The
space affect is called electirc field.
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What is current electricty?
Current Electricity is the flow of electrons through a conductor.
• To use current electricity, you need a closed continuous path, or circuit.

How to make a electorns flow:

To get electrons to flow we need an energy source. This causes electrons to flow from the
negative to the positive terminals
Loads convert the electrical energy into other desired forms including raidnat energy.
Switches are parts of the circuit that can deliberately break the circuit. When the switch is open,
the
circuit is incomplete and the electrons do not flow. The circuit is “off”

Series :
All components are connected one after another along the same continuous path
• If one component breaks, the circuit becomes incomplete and electricity stops flowing

Parralel:
There are multiple pathways for the electrons to flow through
• Loads are often on separate branches so that if one breaks, there is still a complete path
through another branch

Saftey features:
Labels: volagteg and current required. The higher the voltage and current the more danger a
device poses.
Short circuit: A short circuit occurs when an unintended shorter pathway is created for the
current to flow through. This can result in a larger current that could do damage or start a fire.
Groundong prongs stop this and allow at out.
Fuses: When the metal melts, the circuit is broken and electricity stops flowing
Circuit breakers: safety features that trigger a spring which opens a switch if the wire gets too
hot.
When the wire cools down enough the circuit breaker can be reset (turned back on)
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Volatage: Potential difference, or voltage, is the difference in electric potential energy per unit of
charge measured at two points.
•The potential difference between the two terminals of an electric cell creates the flow of
electrons through a circuit.
•Electrons leave the negative terminal of the electric cell with high electric potential energy.
•That energy gets converted by the load into another form of energy.
•When the electrons reach the positive terminal of the electric cell, they have low electric
potential energy.
Coulomb: communicate the amount of charge (aka electrons)
- acrs as a push to get electrobs moving.

Measuring volatage:
•Voltage is measured in joules/charge (energy/bunch of electrons)
•Joules/charge is simplified into the unit of a volt (V).
So 1V = 1J/C
•A voltmeter is used to measure the voltage and must always be connected in parallel with the
load or component of the circuit for which you wish to measure the voltage.

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Sources of voltage:
DC: When the push of electros throug volateg is continuously in one direction
AC: When the push alternates directions we call this alternating current (AC)
* Batteries (aka cells) provide DC while wall outlets provide AC*

Cells – Electrochemistry- Is the study of chemical reactions involving electricity

Cells and batteries: Electrochemical cell is a device that provides a volatge that is
produced by a chemical reaction
They come in wet cells and dry cells

Parts of cells:
An Electrolyte is a paste or liquid that moves electrons(charges) from one electrode to the other
(It uses ions to achieve this)
• An Electrode is a metal that the electrolyte reacts with.
○ One loses electrons to the electrolyte and the other gains electrons from the electrolyte
• In a wet or dry cell, the electrolyte reacts with the two metals
• One metal loses electrons and becomes positively charged
• The electrons are passed through the solution and are deposited on the other metal, which
becomes negatively charged
• When connected to a circuit, the electrons leave the negative electrode and move through the
circuit to the positive electrode

Primary cells: cant be rechargerd

Secondary cells: (which are rechargeable) can regain stored charge if an electrical current is run
“backwards” through the cell
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Current: Current (symbol is I )is a measurement of the number of electrons that flow past a
point in the circuit.
Current= Columbs/seconds also known as an amp

how does current behave in a parallel circuit?

A parallel circuit has two or more paths for current to flow through. Voltage is the same across
each component of the parallel circuit. The current in a parallel circuit splits into different
branches then combines again before it goes back into the supply. When the current splits, the
current in each branch after the split adds up to the same as the current just before the split.
The sum of the currents through each path is equal to the total current that flows from the
source.

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Resistance:
• Electrical resistance is the characteristic of a material that prevents electrons from flowing
through it.
• Resistance is represented by the symbol R.
• Resistance is measured in ohms Ω

Conductors vs Insulators:
Conductors are materials that allow electrons to flow easily.
Insulators are materials that prevent electrons from flowing.

Factors Impacting Resistance

Type of material
Electrons move more easily through
some materials compared to others.
Cross-sectional area
The thicker a wire, the lower will be its
resistance.
Length of Wire
The longer the wire the higher the
resistance.
Temperature
The warmer the wire, its resistance will
likely be greater.

Ohms law:
Relationship between current, resistance and voltage
I=V/R

Questions:
1) In what units are the following measured:
(a) voltage ___________
(b) current ___________
(c) resistance ___________

2) What voltage is used by an electrical appliance that draws 0.4 amps of current and has
a resistance of 3 ohms?

3) A light bulb uses 240 volts of electricity and draws a current of 2 amps. What is its
resistance?

4) Calculate the current used by a television that runs on 240 volts and has a resistance
of 600 ohms.

Current (amps) Resistance (ohms) Volatge (volts)

a 0.1 600
b 0.25 1000
c 0.4 240
d 0.5 240
e 1000 200
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Principle of Electromagnetism: Whenever an electric current moves through a conductor a

magnetic field is created around the conductor.
Discovery: Wire proudced a magnetfoc field alrind it when it carries a curren if there s no currwnt
on the wire, the needle revert back to the allignmnet with the eartsh magnetci field. As it turns
out, an electric current made up of moving charged particles, produces a magnetic field that
circles around the moving current.
moving current shown by the blue lines. If you reverse the direction of the current then the
magnetic field around the wire moves in the opposite direction and the needle on the compass
flips to reflect the change in field.

The motor principle:

A current carrying wire is a [Link], it produces a magnetic field and will behave like
any other magnet when brought near another magnet (attract or repel). You can reverse the
poles (switch N and S) by changing the direction of current in the wire.
•When a current carrying wire is exposed to another magnet, it will experience a force (push or
pull)
•The direction of that force can be changed by changing the direction of the current

Motors: take electricty and create movment

How motors work:
Batteries (or another voltage source) are used to provide a current in a wire (called the
armature). That wire now acts like a magnet. When the current carrying wire (magnet) passes
near another magnet, it experiences a force (it is either repelled or attracted) causing it to move
(spin). In order to allow the armature to continue to spin in one direction, the current either
needs to be briefly stopped or reversed so that the opposite magnet doesn’t just push it back to
where is started.
Vocab:
Armature: Current carrying wire that acts like a magnet, it is the part of a motor that spins
around.
Permanent magnet: External magnet that pushes/pull the armature.
Commutator: a cylinder that has a gap that momentarily breaks the circuit: to break the flow
and/or reverse it so that the armature can continue to spin in the same direction. Otherwise, it
would be pushed back when it arrives at the other pole of the external magnet.
Brushes: are the part that connects and disconnects the external circuit to the spinning
armature. They represent a soft connection as they maintain contact with the commutator while
allowing for rotation.
*the stronger the electromagnet the stronger it repels the permanent magnet and the stronger
the rotation that we get *
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Transmitting Electricity:

Transformers:
The energy companies supply AC because they can create a massive potential difference to
transmit the current, then transform it to a smaller voltage before it enters your home.
The device that reduces the big voltage from the power company to a small voltage useable in
your home is called a transformer
How do transformer work:
The current flowing through the wire on the left side primary coil secondary swaps directions
causing the magnetic field that it produces to reverse directions as well.
The magnetic fields causes current to start flowing in the wire on the left side through
electromagnetic induction. Since there are not as many coils in the wire, the current and
potential difference in the secondary coil will not be as strong and thus the voltage will be
reduced!

Generators:
A generator is a device that takes mechanical energy and converts it to electrical.
A DC generator is set up almost exactly like a DC motor but without the battery (external circuit).
Instead the armature is cranked (by hand if it’s a hand generator or by pedaling if it is the bike
generator) and that induces a current in the armature.
An AC Generator is very similar to a DC generator except that we want the current that is
induced to alternate directions. We accomplish this by not putting a split in the commutator. So
we take advantage of the different directions of force associated with the different poles of the
magnet.

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Power:
Power is a RATE of energy use.
Power is defined as energy per unit time
We measure power in Joules/second which is also known as a Watt symbolized by a “W”
When we refer to electrical power we are referring to the rate at which energy being transferred
(generated or “used”) It might help to think of power like the speed of a vehicle while the energy
used/generated would be like distance travelled.

Power=E/T
Power=energy (in joules)/Time(in seconds)
Power=I/V

When the values for power become large it may be necessary to use kilowatts instead of
watts (think kilometers instead of meters).

Energy Consumption: You can use the power rating of a device to determine the amount
of energy a device will use over a given amount of time.
The energy consumption of an electrical device is its power multiplied by the time the
device is used:
E=Pxt

It doesn’t take common electrical devices long to consume a large number of joules. For
this reason, the kilowatt hour is often used as a unit for energy. The energy calculation is
the same, except that hours are substituted for seconds, and kilowatts (kW) are
substituted for watts. Let’s calculate the kilowatt hours for that same example:
For the microwave oven in our example, the calculation would be
E = 0.8 kW x 0.5 h
= 0.4 kWh

Paying for energy: Energy companies bill you for your energy use using a rate that
charges a certain amount per kilowatt hour .
Example Calculation:
A family uses 3000 kWh of electric energy in a two-month period. If the energy costs 11
cents per kilowatt hour, what is the electric bill for the period?
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Efficiency:
The efficiency of a device is the ratio of the useful energy that comes out of a device to
the total energy that went in. The more input energy that a device converts into useable
output energy, the more efficient the device is. Efficiency is usually calculated as a
percent: