Some terminology

For brevity, we shall refer to electrical potential difference as voltage. Throughout this page, we shall conside voltages and currents that vary sinusoidally with time. We shall use lower case v and i for the voltage and cur when we are considering their variation with time explicitly. The amplitude or peak value of the sinusoidal variation we shall represent by Vm and Im, and we shall use V = Vm !" ! and I = Im !" ! without subscripts to ref the #$% values. For an explanation of #$% values, see &ower and #$% values. For the origin of the sinusoi varying voltage in the mains supply, see $otors and generators. %o for instance, we shall write'

v = v(t) = Vm sin (*t + ,) i = i(t) = Im sin (*t). where * is the angular frequency. * = !-f, where f is the ordinary or cyclic fre.uency. f is the number of co oscillations per second. , is the phase difference between the voltage and current. We shall meet this and the geometrical significance of * later.

Resistors and Ohm's law in AC circuits

The voltage v across a resistor is proportional to the current i travelling through it. (%ee the page on drift velo /hm0s law.) Further, this is true at all times' v = #i. %o, if the current in a resistor is i = Im . sin (*t) , we write' v = #.i = #.Im sin (*t) v = Vm. sin (*t) where Vm = #.Im

%o for a resistor, the pea1 value of voltage is # times the pea1 value of current. Further, they are in phase' wh current is a maximum, the voltage is also a maximum. ($athematically, , = 2.) The first animation shows the voltage and current in a resistor as a function of time.

The rotating lines in the right hand part of the animation are a very simple case of a phasor diagram (named suppose, because it is a vector representation of phase). With respect to the x and y axes, radial vectors or pha representing the current and the voltage across the resistance rotate with angular velocity *. The lengths of th phasors represent the pea1 current Im and voltage Vm. The y components are Im sin (*t) = i(t) and voltage Vm sin (*t)= v(t). 3ou can compare i(t) and v(t) in the animation with the vertical components of the phasors animation and phasor diagram here are simple, but they will become more useful when we consider compone with different phases and with fre.uency dependent behaviour. (For a comparison of simple harmonic motion and circular motion, see &hysclips.)

What are impedance and reactance?

4ircuits in which current is proportional to voltage are called linear circuits. (5s soon as one inserts diodes a transistors, circuits cease to be linear, but that0s another story.) The ratio of voltage to current in a resistor is i resistance. #esistance does not depend on fre.uency, and in resistors the two are in phase, as we have seen in animation. 6owever, circuits with only resistors are not very interesting.

In general, the ratio of voltage to current does depend on fre.uency and in general there is a phase difference impedance is the general name we give to the ratio of voltage to current. It has the symbol 7. #esistance is a case of impedance. 5nother special case is that in which the voltage and current are out of phase by 829' this important case because when this happens, no power is lost in the circuit. In this case where the voltage and c are out of phase by 829, the ratio of voltage to current is called the reactance, and it has the symbol :. We re summarise these terms and give expressions for them below in the section Impedance of components, but firs see why there are fre.uency dependence and phase shifts for capacitors and for inductors.

Capacitors and charging

The voltage on a capacitor depends on the amount of charge you store on its plates. The current flowing onto positive capacitor plate (e.ual to that flowing off the negative plate) is by definition the rate at which charge stored. %o the charge ; on the capacitor e.uals the integral of the current with respect to time. From the defin the capacitance, v4 = . 4, so

<ow remembering that the integral is the area under the curve (shaded blue), we can see in the next animatio the current and voltage are out of phase.

/nce again we have a sinusoidal current i = Im . sin (*t), so integration gives

(The constant of integration has been set to =ero so that the average charge on the capacitor is 2).

<ow we define the capacitive reactance :4 as the ratio of the magnitude of the voltage to magnitude of the in a capacitor. From the e.uation above, we see that :4 = " *4. <ow we can rewrite the e.uation above to m loo1 li1e /hm0s law. The voltage is proportional to the current, and the pea1 voltage and current are related b Vm = :4.Im.

<ote the two important differences. First, there is a difference in phase' the integral of the sinusoidal current negative cos function' it reaches its maximum (the capacitor has maximum charge) when the current has >ust finished flowing forwards and is about to start flowing bac1wards. #un the animation again to ma1e this clea ?oo1ing at the relative phase, the voltage across the capacitor is 829, or one .uarter cycle, behind the current. can see also see how the , = 829 phase difference affects the phasor diagrams at right. 5gain, the vertical com of a phasor arrow represents the instantaneous value of its .uanitity. The phasors are rotating counter cloc1w positive direction) so the phasor representing V4 is 829 behind the current (829 cloc1wise from it).

#ecall that reactance is the name for the ratio of voltage to current when they differ in phase by 829. (If they

phase, the ratio is called resistance.) 5nother difference between reactance and resistance is that the reactance frequency dependent. From the algebra above, we see that the capacitive reactance :4 decreases with fre.u This is shown in the next animation' when the fre.uency is halved but the current amplitude 1ept constant, th capacitor has twice as long to charge up, so it generates twice the potential difference. The blue shading show integral under the current curve (light for positive, dar1 for negative). The second and fourth curves show V4 %ee how the lower fre.uency leads to a larger charge (bigger shaded area before changing sign) and therefore larger V4.

Thus for a capacitor, the ratio of voltage to current decreases with frequency. We shall see later how this ca

used for filtering different fre.uencies.

nductors and the !arady emf

5n inductor is usually a coil of wire. In an ideal inductor, the resistance of this wire is negligibile, as is its capacitance. The voltage that appears across an inductor is due to its own magnetic field and Faraday0s law of electromagnetic induction. The current i(t) in the coil sets up a magnetic field, whose magnetic flux ,@ is proportional to the field strength, which is proportional to the current flowing. (Ao not confuse the phase , w flux ,@.) %o we define the (self) inductance of the coil thus' ,@(t) = ?.i(t) Faraday0s law gives the emf B? = C d,@ dt. <ow this emf is a voltage rise, so for the voltage drop v? across the inductor, we have'

5gain we define the inductive reactance :? as the ratio of the magnitudes of the voltage and current, and fro e.uation above we see that :? = *?. 5gain we note the analogy to /hm0s law' the voltage is proportional to current, and the pea1 voltage and currents are related by Vm = :?.Im.

#emembering that the derivative is the local slope of the curve (the purple line), we can see in the next anima why voltage and current are out of phase in an inductor.

5gain, there is a difference in phase' the derivative of the sinusoidal current is a cos function' it has its maxim (largest voltage across the inductor) when the current is changing most rapidly, which is when the current is intantaneously =ero. The animation should ma1e this clear. The voltage across the ideal inductor is 829 ahead current, (ie it reaches its pea1 one .uarter cycle before the current does). <ote how this is represented on the diagram.

5gain we note that the reactance is frequency dependent :? = *?. This is shown in the next animation' whe fre.uency is halved but the current amplitude 1ept constant, the current is varying only half as .uic1ly, so its derivative is half as great, as is the Faraday emf. For an inductor, the ratio of voltage to current increases with fre.uency, as the next animation shows.

mpedance of components

?et0s recap what we now 1now about voltage and curent in linear components. The impedance is the general for the ratio of voltage to current. #esistance is the special case of impedance when , = 2, reactance the spec when , = 829. The table below summarises the impedance of the different components. It is easy to remem the voltage on the capacitor is behind the current, because the charge doesn0t build up until after the current h flowing for a while.

The same information is given graphically below. It is easy to remember the fre.uency dependence by thin1i the A4 (=ero fre.uency) behaviour' at A4, an inductance is a short circuit (a piece of wire) so its impedance 5t A4, a capacitor is an open circuit, as its circuit diagram shows, so its impedance goes to infinity.

RC Series com"inations

When we connect components together, Dirchoff0s laws apply at any instant. %o the voltage v(t) across a resi and capacitor in series is >ust vseries(t) = v#(t) + v4(t) however the addition is complicated because the two are not in phase. The next animation ma1es this clear' th to give a new sinusoidal voltage, but the amplitude is less than Vm#(t) + Vm4(t). %imilarly, the 54 voltages (amplitude times !" !) do not add up. This may seem confusing, so it0s worth repeating' vseries = v# + v4 but Vseries E V# + V4. This should be clear on the animation and the still graphic below' chec1 that the voltages v(t) do add up, and loo1 at the magnitudes. The amplitudes and the #$% voltages V do not add up in a simple arithmetical way.

6ere0s where phasor diagrams are going to save us a lot of wor1. &lay the animation again (clic1 play), and l the pro>ections on the vertical axis. @ecause we have sinusoidal variation in time, the vertical component (ma times the sine of the angle it ma1es with the x axis) gives us v(t). @ut the y components of different vectors, a therefore phasors, add up simply' if

rtotal = r" + r!, then ry total = ry" + ry!. %o v(t), the sum of the y pro>ections of the component phasors, is >ust the y pro>ection of the sum of the comp phasors. %o we can represent the three sinusoidal voltages by their phasors. (While you0re loo1ing at it, chec1 phases. 3ou0ll see that the series voltage is behind the current in phase, but the relative phase is somewhere b 2 and 829, the exact value depending on the si=e of V# and V4. We0ll discuss phase below.)

<ow let0s stop that animation and label the values, which we do in the still figure below. 5ll of the variables ( v4, vseries) have the same fre.uency f and the same angular fre.uency *, so their phasors rotate together, with same relative phases. %o we can 0free=e0 it in time at any instant to do the analysis. The convention I use is tha axis is the reference direction, and the reference is whatever is common in the circuit. In this series circuit, th current is common. (In a parallel circuit, the voltage is common, so I would ma1e the voltage the hori=ontal a careful to distinguish v and V in this figureF

(4areful readers will note that I0m ta1ing a shortcut in these diagrams' the si=e of the arrows on the phasor diagrams are drawn the the amplitudes on the v(t) graphs. 6owever I am >ust calling them V#, V4 etc, rather than Vm#, Vm# etc. The reason is that the pea1 (Vm# etc) are rarely used in tal1ing about 54' we use the #$% values, which are pea1 values times 2.G". &hasor diagrams in #$% same shape as those drawn using amplitudes, but everything is scaled by a factor of 2.G" = " !" !.)

The phasor diagram at right shows us a simple way to calculate the series voltage. The components are in ser the current is the same in both. The voltage phasors (brown for resistor, blue for capacitor in the convention w been using) add according to vector or phasor addition, to give the series voltage (the red arrow). @y now you need to loo1 at v(t), you can go straight from the circuit diagram to the phasor diagram, li1e this'

From &ythagoras0 theorem' V!m#4 = V!m# + V!m4 If we divide this e.uation by two, and remembering that the #$% value V = Vm !" !, we also get'

<ow this loo1s li1e /hm0s law again' V is proportional to I. Their ratio is the series impedance, 7series and so series circuit,

<ote the fre.uency dependence of the series impedance 7#4' at low fre.uencies, the impedance is very large, because the capacitive reactance " *4 is large (the capacitor is open circuit for A4). 5t high fre.uencies, the capacitive reactance goes to =ero (the capacitor doesn0t have time to charge up) so the series impedance goes the angular fre.uency * = *o = " #4, the capacitive reactance " *4 e.uals the resistance #. We shall show t characteristic fre.uency on all graphs on this page.

#emember how, for two resistors in series, you could >ust add the resistances' #series = #" + #! to get the resist the series combination. That simple result comes about because the two voltages are both in phase with the cu so their phasors are parallel. @ecause the phasors for reactances are 829 out of phase with the current, the seri impedance of a resistor # and a reactance : are given by &ythagoras0 law'

7series! = #! + :! . Ohm's law in AC. We can rearrange the e.uations above to obtain the current flowing in this circuit. 5lterna we can simply use the /hm0s ?aw analogy and say that I = Vsource 7#4. Bither way we get

where the current goes to =ero at A4 (capacitor is open circuit) and to V # at high fre.uencies (no time to ch capacitor).

%o far we have concentrated on the magnitude of the voltage and current. We now derive expressions for thei relative phase, so let0s loo1 at the phasor diagram again.

From simple trigonometry, the angle by which the current leads the voltage is

tanC" (V4 V#) = tanC" (I:4 I#) = tanC" (" *#4) = tanC" (" !-f#4).

6owever, we shall refer to the angle , by which the voltage leads the current. The voltage is behind the curre because the capacitor ta1es time to charge up, so , is negative, ie

, = tanC" (" *#4) = tanC" (" !-f#4). (3ou may want to go bac1 to the #4 animation to chec1 out the phases in time.) 5t low fre.uencies, the impedance of the series #4 circuit is dominated by the capacitor, so the voltage is 82 behind the current. 5t high fre.uencies, the impedance approaches # and the phase difference approaches =e fre.uency dependence of 7 and , are important in the applications of #4 circuits. The voltage is mainly acro capacitor at low fre.uencies, and mainly across the resistor at high fre.uencies. /f course the two voltages m up to give the voltage of the source, but they add up as vectors. V!#4 = V!# + V!4. 5t the fre.uency * = *o = " #4, the phase , = HI9 and the voltage fractions are V# V#4 = V4 V#4 = " !V" ! =

%o, by chosing to loo1 at the voltage across the resistor, you select mainly the high fre.uencies, across the ca you select low fre.uencies. This brings us to one of the very important applications of #4 circuits, and one w merits its own page' filters# integrators and differentiators where we use sound files as examples of #4 fil

R$ Series com"inations

In an #? series circuit, the voltage across the inductor is aheadof the current by 829, and the inductive reacta we saw before, is :? = *?. The resulting v(t) plots and phasor diagram loo1 li1e this.

It is straightforward to use &ythagoras0 law to obtain the series impedance and trigonometry to obtain the pha shall not, however, spend much time on #? circuits, for three reasons. First, it ma1es a good exercise for you yourself. %econd, #? circuits are used much less than #4 circuits. This is because inductors are alwaysJ too expensive and the wrong value, a proposition you can chec1 by loo1ing at an electronics catalogue. If you ca circuit involving any number of #s, 4s, transistors, integrated circuits etc to replace an inductor, one usually The third reason why we don0t loo1 closely at #? circuits on this site is that you can simply loo1 at #?4 circu (below) and omit the phasors and terms for the capacitance.

J Bxceptions occur at high fre.uencies (KL6=) where only small value ?s are re.uired to get substantial *?. circuits, one ma1es an inductor by twisting copper wire around a pencil and ad>usts its value by s.uee=ing it w fingers.

R$C Series com"inations

<ow let0s put a resistor# capacitor and inductor in series. 5t any given time, the voltage across the three components in series, vseries(t), is the sum of these' vseries(t) = v#(t) + v?(t) + v4(t), The current i(t) we shall 1eep sinusoidal, as before. The voltage across the resistor, v#(t), is in phase with the That across the inductor, v?(t), is 829 ahead and that across the capacitor, v4(t), is 829 behind.

/nce again, the timeCdependent voltages v(t) add up at any time, but the #$% voltages V do not simply add u /nce again they can be added by phasors representing the three sinusoidal voltages. 5gain, let0s 0free=e0 it in the purposes of the addition, which we do in the graphic below. /nce more, be careful to distinguish v and V

?oo1 at the phasor diagram' The voltage across the ideal inductor is antiparallel to that of the capacitor, so th reactive voltage (the voltage which is 829 ahead of the current) is V? C V4, so &ythagoras now gives us' V!series = V!# + (V? C V4)! <ow V# = I#, V? = I:? = *? and V4 = I:4= " *4. %ubstituting and ta1ing the common factor I gives'

where 7series is the series impedance' the ratio of the voltage to current in an #?4 series ciruit. <ote that, once reactances and resistances add according to &ythagoras0 law'

7series! = #! + :total! = #! + (:? :4)!. #emember that the inductive and capacitive phasors are "M29 out of phase, so their reactances tend to cancel. <ow let0s loo1 at the relative phase. The angle by which the voltage leads the current is , = tanC" ((V? C V4) V#). %ubstiting V# = I#, V? = I:? = *? and V4 = I:4= " *4 gives'

The dependence of 7series and , on the angular fre.uency * is shown in the next figure. The angular fre.uency given in terms of a particular value *o, the resonant fre.uency (*o! = " ?4), which we meet below.

(%etting the inductance term to =ero gives bac1 the e.uations we had above for #4 circuits, though note that negative, meaning (as we saw above) that voltage lags the current. %imilarly, removing the capacitance terms the expressions that apply to #? circuits.) The next graph shows us the special case where the fre.uency is such that V? = V4.

@ecause v?(t) and v4 are "M29 out of phase, this means that v?(t) = v4(t), so the two reactive voltages cancel and the series voltage is >ust e.ual to that across the resistor. This case is called series resonance, which is ou topic.

Resonance

<ote that the expression for the series impedance goes to infinity at high fre.uency because of the presence o inductor, which produces a large emf if the current varies rapidly. %imilarly it is large at very low fre.uencies because of the capacitor, which has a long time in each half cycle in which to charge up. 5s we saw in the plo 7series* above, there is a minimum value of the series impedance, when the voltages across capacitor and indu e.ual and opposite, ie v?(t) = v4(t) so V?(t) = V4, so *? = " *4 so the fre.uency at which this occurs is

where *o and fo are the angular and cyclic fre.uencies of resonance, respectively. 5t resonance, series imped a minimum, so the voltage for a given current is a minimum (or the current for a given voltage is a maximum This phenomenon gives the answer to our teaser .uestion at the beginning. In an #?4 series circuit in which the inductor has relatively low internal resistance r, it is possible to have a large voltage across the the inductor, an almost e.ually large voltage across capacitor but, as the two are nearly "M29 degrees out of phase, their voltages almost cancel, giving a total series voltage that is .uite small. This is one way to produce a large voltage oscillation with only a small voltage source. In the circuit diagram at right, the coil corresponds to both the inducance ? and the resistance r, which is why they are drawn inside a box representing the physical component, the coil. Why are they in seriesN @ecause the current flows through the coil and thus passes through both the inductance of the coil and its resistance. 3ou get a big voltage in the circuit for only a small voltage input from the power source. 3ou are not, of course, getting something for nothing. The energy stored in the large oscillations is gradually supplied by the 54 source when you turn on, and it is then exchanged between capacitor and inductor in

each cycle. For more details about this phenomenon, and a discussion of the energies involved, go to ?4 oscillations.

%andwidth and & factor

5t resonance, the voltages across the capacitor and the pure inductance cancel out, so the series impedance ta1es its minimum value' 7o = #. Thus, if we 1eep the voltage constant, the current is a maximum at resonance. The current goes to =ero at low fre.uency, because :4 becomes infinite (the capacitor is open circuit for A4). The current also goes to =ero at high fre.uency because :? increases with * (the inductor opposes rapid changes in the current). The graph shows I(*) for circuit with a large resistor (lower curve) and for one with a small resistor (upper curve). 5 circuit with low #, for a given ? and 4, has a sharp resonance. Increasing the resistance ma1es the resonance less sharp. The former circuit is more selective' it produces high currents only for a narrow "andwidth, ie a small range of * or f. The circuit with higher # responds to a wider range of fre.uencies and so has a larger bandwidth. The bandwidth O* (indicated by the hori=tontal bars on the curves) is defined as the difference between the two fre.uencies *+ and *C at which the circuit converts power at half the maximum rate. <ow the electrical power converted to heat in this circuit is I!#, so the maximum power is converted at resonance, * = *o. The circuit converts power at half this rate when the current is Io !" !. The & value is defined as the ratio ; = *o O*.

Comple' impedance

3ou have perhaps been loo1ing at these phasor diagrams, noticing that they are all twoCdimensional, and thin that we could simply use the complex plane. Lood ideaF @ut not original' indeed, that is the most common w analyse such circuits.

The only difference from the presentation here is to consider cosusoids, rather than sinusoids. In the animatio above, we used sin waves so that the vertical pro>ection of the phasors would correspond to the height on the graphs. In complex algebra, we use cos waves and ta1e their pro>ections on the (hori=ontal) real axis. The pha diagrams have now become diagrams of complex numbers, but otherwise loo1 exactly the same. They still ro *t, but in the complex plane. The resistor has a real impedance #, the inductor0s reactance is a positive imagi impedance

:? = >*? and the capacitor has a negative imaginary impedance :4 = >." *4 = " >*4. 4onse.uently, using bold face for complex .uantities, we may write' (series = (#! + (>*? + " >*4)!)" ! and so on. The algebra is relatively simple. The magnitude of any complex .uantity gives the magnitude of th

.uantity it represents, the phase angle its phase angle. Its real component is the component in phase with the reference phase, and the imaginary component is the component that is 829 ahead. There are pages on related material at #4 filters, integrators and differentiators ?4 oscillations power, #$% values and threeCphase circuits Transformers $otors, generators, alternators and loudspea1ers Arift velocity and /hm0s law 5 good text boo1 is' Introductory Alternating Current Circuit Theory, by L.P. #ussell and D. $ann, Q<%W "882.

)ore to come
We0re still wor1ing on this page and shall add more to it as time permits.