Electric Current and Resistance

Electric Current
From Fig. (a), any isolated conducting loop—
regardless of whether it has an excess charge —
is all at the same potential. No electric field can
exist within it or along its surface.
If we insert a battery in the loop, as in Fig. (b), the
conducting loop is no longer at a single potential.
Electric fields act inside the material making up
the loop, exerting forces on internal charges,
causing them to move and thus establishing a (c)
current. (The diagram assumes the motion of
positive charges moving clockwise.)
Figure c shows a section of a conductor, part of
a conducting loop in which current has been
established. If a charge dq passes through a
hypothetical plane (such as aa’) in time dt, then
the current i through that plane is defined as
 Electric Current Direction
Under steady-state condition, the current is the same for planes aa’, bb’
and cc’ and for all planes that pass completely
through the conductor. This implies that the
charge is conserved.
Fig (a) shows a conductor with current i0 splitting
at a junction into two branches. Because charge
is conserved, the magnitudes of the currents in
the branches must add to yield the magnitude of
the current in the original conductor, so that
Fig (b) suggests, bending or reorienting the wires
in space does not change the validity of the
above equation. Current arrows show only a
direction (or sense) of flow along a conductor, not
a direction in space.
 Current Density
Current i (a scalar quantity) is related to current density J (a vector
quantity) by

where dA is a vector perpendicular to a surface

element of area dA and the integral is taken over
any surface cutting across the conductor. The
current density J has the same direction as the
velocity of the moving charges if they are positive
charges and the opposite direction if the moving
Streamlines
charges are negative.
representing
Current is said to be due to positive charges current density
that are propelled by the electric field. When in the flow of
no current is passed across a conductor, its charge through
a constricted
conduction electrons move randomly with no conductor.
net motion in any direction.
 Charge Carrier Density
But when it is passed, the electrons still move randomly but with lesser
speed (drift speed vd) in direction opposite that of length L (as shown
in the fig below). Assume all charge carriers move with the same drift
speed and that the current density J is uniform across the wire’s
x/sectional area A. The number of charge carriers in the wire is, nAL,
where n is the number of charge carriers per unit
vol. The total charge of carriers in the length L each
with charge e is………. q=(nAL)e
this total charge moves any
cross-section of wire in the time interval,

Current i is the time rate of Conduction electrons

charge xfer across a x/section... are actually moving
to the right but the
Writing
The driftfor J as v is related
velocity and to the current density. conventional current
d
i is said to move to
Here the product ne, whose SI unit is the coulomb per
the left.
cubic meter (C/m3), is the carrier charge density.
 Resistance and Resistivity

Applying the same potential difference V between the ends of

geometrically similar rods of materials like copper and of glass, very
different currents i result. The electrical resistance R of a conductor
is determined as

A conductor whose function is to provide a specific resistance is called

a Resistor. In general terms, properties of materials are often useful.
The electric field E at a point and current density J at that point are
related to resistivity ρ of the material as:

This eqn holds only for isotropic materials (whose

electrical properties are the same in all direction).
The reciprocal of resistivity is conductivity σ of
the material:
Assortment of Resistors
The resistance R of a conducting wire of length L
and uniform cross section is

Here A is the cross-sectional area.

A potential difference V is
applied between the ends
The resistivity ρ for most materials changes with of a wire of length L and
temperature. For many materials, including cross section A,
establishing a current i.
metals, the relation between ρ and temperature
T is approximated by the equation

Here T0 is a reference temperature, ρ0 is the

resistivity at T0, and α is the temperature The resistivity of copper as
coefficient of resistivity for the material. a function of temperature.
 Ohm’s Law

Fig (a) shows how to distinguish among devices. A

potential difference V is applied across the device
being tested, and the resulting current i through the
device is measured as V is varied in both magnitude
and polarity.
Fig (b) is a plot of i versus V for one device. This plot
is a straight line passing through the origin, so the
ratio i/V (which is the slope of the straight line) is the
same for all values of V. This means that the
resistance R = V/i of the device is independent of the
magnitude and polarity of the applied potential
difference V.
Fig (c) is a plot for another conducting device. Current
can exist in this device only when the polarity of V is
positive and the applied potential difference is more
than about 1.5 V. When current does exist, the
relation between i and V is not linear; it depends on
the value of the applied potential difference V.
 I~V or I = V/R

Answer: Device 2 does not follow ohm’s law.

 A Microscopic View
The assumption that the conduction
electrons in a metal are free to move
like the molecules in a gas leads to an
expression for the resistivity of a metal:

Here n is the number of free electrons

per unit volume and τ is the mean time
between the collisions of an electron
with the atoms of the metal. The gray lines show an
electron moving from A to B,
Metals obey Ohm’s law because the making six collisions en route.
The green lines show what the
mean free time τ is approximately electron’s path might be in the
presence of an applied electric
independent of the magnitude E of any field E. Note the steady drift in
electric field applied to a metal. the direction of -E.
Power, Semiconductors, Superconductors
This Fig shows a circuit consisting of a battery B that is connected
by wires, which we assume have negligible resistance, to an
unspecified conducting device. The device might be a resistor, a
storage battery (a rechargeable battery), a motor, or some other
electrical device. The battery maintains a potential difference of
magnitude V across its own terminals and thus
(because of the wires) across the terminals of the
unspecified device, with a greater potential at
terminal a of the device than at terminal b.
The power P, or rate of energy transfer, in an
electrical device across which a potential difference
V is maintained is
If the device is a resistor, the
power can also be written as
or,
Semiconductors are materials that have few conduction
electrons but can become conductors when they are doped with
other atoms that contribute charge carriers. The number of free
electrons, n, is small (unlike conductor) but increases rapidly
with temp as the increased thermal
agitation makes more charge
carriers available.
This causes a
decrease of resistivity with increasing temp,
as indicated by the negative temp coefficient
of resistivity for silicon in the Table
Superconductors are materials that lose all
electrical resistance below some critical temp.
Most such materials require very low temp, but
The resistance of mercury
some become superconducting at temperatures drops to zero at a
as high as room temp. temperature of about 4 K.
Q1. A 1250W radiant heater is constructed to operate at 115V.
(a) what is the current in the heater when the unit is
operating. (b) what is the resistance of the heating coil (c).
How much thermal energy is produced in 1.0hr.
SOLN…..
a. P=iV, i= 1250/115 = A c. E=Pt
= 1250x60x60= J
b. P=V2/R or V=iR; R= Ω
…………………………………………………………………………
Q2. A potential diff of 3nV is set up across a 2cm length of
copper wire that has a radius of 2mm. How much charge
drifts through a cross section in 3ms? (pCu=1.69x10-8 Ωm)
SOLN….

= 2.69x10-5Ω
With p.d., i=V/R = 1.115x10-4A
∆Q=i∆t
 Summary
Current Resistance of a Conductor
• The electric current i in a • Resistance R of a conductor is
defined by
conductor is defined by

• Similarly the resistivity and

Current Density conductivity of a material is defined
• Current is related to current density by
by
• Resistance of a conducting wire of
length L and uniform cross section
is
Drift Speed of the Charge
Carriers
• Drift speed of the charge carriers in an Change of ρ with Temperature
applied electric field is related to • The resistivity of most material
current density by changes with temperature and is
given as
Ohm’s Law Power
• A given device (conductor, resistor, • The power P, or rate of energy
or any other electrical device) obeys transfer, in an electrical device
Ohm’s law if its resistance R across which a potential difference
(defined by Eq. 26-8 as V/i) is V is maintained is
independent of the applied potential
difference V.

• If the device is a resistor, we can

Resistivity of a Metal write
• By assuming that the conduction
electrons in a metal are free to move
like the molecules of a gas, it is
possible to derive an expression for
the resistivity of a metal:

Eq. 26-22