Alternating Current

Alternating Current

 Alternating Current is the reason why

- Light bulbs flash on & off 100 times per second

- Electric motors would spin at a rate of 100 times per second

Before going the other way

This would be the frequency

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 Various different alternating current:

Alternating current is where been reversed

Alternating Current

 The mains supply is very close to a pure sinusoidal wave form (having a sine wave)

 A lamp will glow brightest – when the current is maximum (either direction)
A lamp will go out – at zero current

Alternating current & Charge carriers

 Alternating current will give an alternating e.m.f across a conductor

This will drive the charge carriers back & forth

 When the voltage decreases to 0 – the charge carriers come to a rest

 The e.m.f will drive them back in the opposite direction
 The charge carriers are doomed to move back & forth along the same piece of conductor

 The current equation:

Usually
𝑉
𝐼=
𝑅

𝐼 = 𝑛𝐴𝑒𝑉

𝑛: 𝑁𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑔𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑟𝑠/𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒

𝐴: 𝐷𝑖𝑎𝑚𝑡𝑒𝑟

𝑒: 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑔𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑎𝑛 𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑟𝑜𝑛 (𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑔𝑟𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑟)

As 𝑛 × 𝑒 = 𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑔𝑒 𝑝𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ 𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒

𝑉: 𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑒

Root, mean, square current & power

 Alternating current has changing voltage – therefore the calculations need to be modified
 The variation in the current would be:

𝐼 = 𝐼0 sin(2𝜋𝑓𝑡) = 𝐼0 (2𝑤𝑡)

Where for UK mains - 𝑓 = 50Hz

There are 50 cycles per second

 The instantaneous value for this can be considered the average effect of the current has
over a period of time
Alternating Current

 Take everything in terms of average magnitude

 For a sine wave – the average for every is given as

Where y = max

∑360
0 (𝑦[sin(𝑥)])
2
1
= 0.6366𝑦 ≈ 𝑦
360 √2

(Square to get rid of negative – want magnitude)

 For the mains the max voltage is 330-340

Therefore the average voltage is 240

 The average current is

𝐼0
〈𝐼〉 =
√2
Where 𝐼0 is the peak current

 The average power is

𝑃 = 𝐼2 𝑅
So

2
𝐼0
〈𝑃〉 = ( ) 𝑅
√2

1
〈𝑃〉 = 𝐼02 𝑅
2
Alternating Current

 Average is the same as constant

 A lamp powered by an a.c. current that varies between 𝐼0 → −𝐼0 would glow at the same
brightness as an identical lamp with d.c. current of 𝐼0 √2

 This DC current is known as the r.m.s equivalent current