Electricity Fundamentals

- Circuits are made up of elements

- Electromotive force provides work (voltage) to move charge

- Current (i) is change/flow of charge (q), over time (t)

- i = dq / dt
- AC varies sinusoidally around 0, DC is constant and greater than 0

- Voltage (v) is the work (w) that moves charge (q)

- Work is the result of attraction of electrons to other end of the circuit
- Voltage is described as work/energy per unit charge (intensive property)
- v = dw / dq Practically, v = w/q

- Power (p) is the rate of energy (w) over time (t)

- p = dw / dt
- Multiplying work per charge by number of charges gives just work/energy
- p=v*i
- Positive means element is drawing power, negative means it’s supplying power
- Current from + to - means current is being drawn
- Other way around means current is being supplied
- When current is supplied, p = -v * i
- In other words, power is absorbed when moving from higher to lower potential

- Sum of all power being absorbed and drawn across circuit must be 0
- Current is through, voltage is across (ie between two points)
- charge q is in coulombs C current i is in amperes A
voltage v is in volts V work w is in joules J
power p is in watts W
Basic Elements
- Passive elements (resistors, capacitors, inductors) cannot generate energy
- Active elements (batteries, operational amplifiers) can, also called sources
- Independent source of voltage provides a particular voltage independent of
other elements. Provides whatever current is necessary to maintain that
voltage.
- Vice versa for sources of current
- Dependent sources have their voltages/currents controlled by other
voltages/currents
- _C_S, _ controlled _ source, replace blanks with current or voltage
- Voltage will tend to have same polarity for part of a circuit (such as + top and -
bottom), use this if voltage is not given outright
- Or just solve for what isn’t immediately obvious

Independent Independent Independent Dependent Dependent

voltage source, voltage source current source voltage source current source
constant (constant or
varying)

- Current is shown with arrows, voltage with polarity

- Circle is independent, diamond is dependent

- R = p * ( ℓ / A), where R is resistance, p is resistivity of material, ℓ is length, and A is

cross sectional area
- Ohm’s Law: v = i * R
- Can be represented on an i-v graph, where R is the slope
- R is measured in Ohms Ω, denotes ability of element to resist flow of electric current.
- 1 Ω = 1 V/A
- Non-linear resistors do not obey Ohm’s law, graph of i-v will not be linear

Resistor Generic variable resistor Potentiometer (low power

variable resistor)

- Conductance G is the inverse of R, G = 1 / R = i / v, measured in Siemens S

- i=G*v
- Power can be written in terms of R, p = v2 / R

- A branch is any two terminal circuit element

- A node is the point of connection between 2 or more branches, in the most collapsed
state
- 2 nodes connected with nothing between is just one node. The entirety of an
uninterrupted wire is one node
- A loop is a closed path in a circuit
 - An independent loop contains at least one element not found in other loops
- In a network with b branches, n nodes, and ℓ independent loops, b = ℓ + n - 1

- Elements are in series if connected in a line (share single node), carry same current
but different voltage
- Current in circuit is the same until some sort of split
- Elements are in parallel if connected to the same two nodes, have same voltage
across them but different current
- Voltage sources in series have their voltages added
- Current sources in parallel have their current added
Kirchhoff Analysis
- Sum of currents entering node (or closed boundary) is equal to sum of currents
exiting node
- Sum of voltages around closed path/loop is zero

- Give name to each current stream (until junction), assign (circular) direction
- For each passive element, write Ohm’s law (if current flowing from + to -). Will be
negative for elements facing the wrong way (current flowing from - to +), such as
voltage sources (and resistors)
- For loops, use KVL to sum voltage jumps/drops in loop to 0, like v1 + v2 = 0
- Voltages of elements facing the wrong way are subtracted (so resistors facing
against the voltage loop direction will be cancelled)
- Plug sources/givens into equations first, then do substitutions with Ohm’s law,
etc
- At junctions (splits of current), write KCL equation, like I0 = I1 + I2
- Each current will be determined by current sources between its junctions.
Branches without current sources must be solved for

- If there’s just one variable in an equation, just solve for it

- Once I have current/voltage, plug it into Ohm’s law equations to get the other
- If I have 2 voltage loops with an element in common, plug in the currents and solve
for current that is NOT in common. Then plug the results into KCL and solve for the
one that was in common

+--+
Normal Ohm’s LawNegative Ohm’s Law
Equivalent Resistance

- Network of resistors can be manipulated to get a single resistance value that covers
all of them, called equivalent resistance

- When resistors are in series, add the individual resistances

1. If N resistors in parallel all have the same resistance, then Req = R1 / N

2. If 2 are in parallel, use formula Req = R1R2 / (R1+ R2)
3. If more than 2 in parallel, use formula (1/Req) = (1/R1) + (1/R2) + …
- As more resistors are added in parallel, resistance decreases because same
voltage drop needs to be maintained across more resistors, so overall more
current will flow
- The equations for series and parallel are swapped when talking about conductance
G (or just invert at the end)

- To get energy through individual resistor, first find equivalent resistance, use Ohm’s
law to find current i, then work backwards until get resistor
- When in series, solve for voltage of resistors (same current)
- When in parallel, solve for current of resistors (same voltage)

- Bridges with resistors are neither in parallel nor series. Called delta configuration
- To solve, must be converted to equivalent Wye configuration
- Each new resistor is equal to product of 2 adjacent resistances, divided by sum of all
resistances R = (R1*R2) / (R1 + R2 + R3)
- Denominator is the same for each
- To go back to delta, sum the product of all two resistor combinations, then divide by
the resistance of the resistor opposite to the current one
- R = (R1*R2 + R1*R3 + R2*R3) / R1
- Numerator is the same for each