Review Rules: Conductors: silver copper gold aluminum iron steel brass bronze mercury graphite dirty water

concrete Insulators: glass rubber oil asphalt fiberglass porcelain ceramic quartz (dry) cotton (dry) paper (dry) wood plastic air diamond pure water

"Free electrons" is where the outer electrons in each atom can easily come or go . In insulating materials, the outer electrons are not so free to move. Dynamic electricity, or electric current, is the uniform motion of electrons thr ough a conductor. Static electricity is an unmoving, accumulated charge by either an excess or def iciency of electrons in an object. Formed by the contact of dissimilar materials. A circuit is an unbroken loop of conductive material that allows electrons to fl ow without ending. "V" is the amount of energy per unit between two points. The "push" available to motivate electrons. Sometimes called a voltage "drop." When a voltage sourse, Vs is connected to a circuit, the voltage will cause a fl ow called a Current.

The amount of current is the same through out any other point. If a circuit is broken, the whole voltage will appear across the points of the b reak. The +/- of a voltage drop is called the polarity. The polarity of the voltage drop across any resistor is determined by the direct ion of electron flow through it: negative entering, and positive exiting. Resistance is the amount of opposition to current. A short circuit can cause large amounts of heat energy to be released and be dan gerous. An open circuit or switch is where there is an interruption in the current path. One without continuity A closed circuit (or switch) is one that is complete. It provides a low resistan ce path for electrons to flow. A switch opens and closes a circuit. A Diode is like a checkvalve. Voltage (pressure) measured in volts, symbolized by the letters "E" or "V". Current (Flow) measured in amps, symbolized by the letter "I". Resistance measured in ohms, symbolized by the letter "R". Ohm's Law: E = IR ; I = E/R ; R = E/I Current is: the rate at which electricity moves through a conductor. With resistance steady, current follows voltage (an increase in voltage means an increase in current, and vice versa). With voltage steady, changes in current and resistance are opposite (an increase in current means a decrease in resistance, and vice versa). With current steady, voltage follows resistance (an increase in resistance means an increase in voltage). Power is Energy. It's how much work can be done in a given time. Power - measured in watts Energy is measured in joules (J) Time is measured in seconds (s) Energy = Power(Time) Mechanical power measured in "horsepower." Electrical power measured in "Watts," P = I(E) Elec. power is the product of both voltage and current combined

Horsepower and watts are merely two different units for describing the same kind of physical measurement, with 1 horsepower equals 745.7 watts.

Joule's Law: P = I2(R) ; P = I(E) ; P = E2/R

The black rectangles in a computer are called "integrated circuits" or "chips" The smaller units are called "surface mount devices." Any non-specific electrical device is generally called a load, rather than an ac tual resistor. Resistors are rated both in terms of their resistance (ohms) and their ability to dissipate Heat energy (watts). For most conductors, resistance is stable unaffected by voltage or current. So w e can regard the resistance of many circuits as constant, with voltage and current being directly related to each other. The resistance of most conductive materials is stable over a wide range of condi tions, but this is not true of all materials. Any function that can be plotted on a graph as a straight line is called a linea r function. For circuits with stable resistances, the plot of current over voltage is linear (I=E/R). In circuits where resistance varies with changes in either voltage or current, t he plot of current over voltage will be nonlinear (not a straight line). A varistor is a component that changes resistance with the amount of voltage imp ressed across it. With little voltage across it, its resistance is high. Then, at a certain "breakdown" or "fi ring" voltage, its resistance decreases dramatically. Negative resistance is where current through a component decreases as voltage ac ross it is increased. Some diodes exhibit negative resistance over a certain range of voltages.

The fish symbol means "Proportional to" Components in a Series are connected end-to-end, forming a single path for elect rons to flow.

Components In a parallel are connected across each other, forming 2 sets of comm on points. A "branch" is a path made for current formed by a a resistor. Components in a series have the same current Total. Rt in a series = to the total of each of all the Resistors. Vt in a series = to the total of each "voltage drops" Components in a parallel have the same Et. Rt in a parallel is less than any of the individual resistances. It in a parallel = to the total of each branch currents. Conductance "G" (mhos) or Siemens is the opposite of resistance. Or the measure of how easy electrons flow. Conductance is symbolized with the letter "G" and is measured in units of mhos o r Siemens. Conductance = the reciprocal of resistance: G = 1/R Pt = P1 + P2 + . . . Pn Apply Ohm's Law to vertical columns in the table. Apply rules of series/parallel to horizontal rows in the table. Check your calculations by working "backwards" Knowing that electrically common points have zero voltage drop between them is a valuable troubleshooting principle. If I measure for voltage between points in a circuit that are supposed to be com mon to each other, I should read zero. If, however, I read voltage between those two points, then I know they cannot be connected together. If they are supposed to be common but register otherwise, then there is an "open failure" be tween those points. Connecting wires in a circuit are assumed to have zero resistance unless otherwi se stated. Wires in a circuit can be shortened or lengthened without impacting the circuit' s function. All that matters is that the components are attached to one another in the same sequence. Points directly connected together in a circuit are considered to be electricall y common with zero resistance between them. And they will ideally have zero voltage dropped, regard less of the current. The voltage or resistance readings between sets of common points will be the sam e. Find Circuit failures by redrawing the circuit with the equivalent resistance of the failed component in place and re-calculate all values.

A "Shorted" component is one whose resistance has dramatically decreased. An "Open" component is one whose resistance has dramatically increased. A breadboard is a device used to quickly assemble temporary circuits Soldering is a low-temperature welding process utilizing a lead/tin or tin/silve r alloy to bond wires and component leads together A terminal strip or terminal block can do the same thing.

G= I/R PTotal = P1 + P2 + . . . Pn P = I(V) P = V2/R P = I2(R) V = P/I V = I(R) I = V/R I = P/V R = V/I R = V2/P R = P/I2

Remember this important rule: The variables used in Ohm's Law equations must be common to the same two points in the circuit under consideration. I cannot overe mphasize this rule. This is especially important in series-parallel combination circuits where nearby components may have different values for both voltage drop and current.