Chapter 1

Components,
Quantities, and Units

ISU EE C.Y. Lee

 Objectives
Recognize common electrical components and
measuring instruments
State basic electrical and magnetic quantities and
their units
Use scientific notation to express quantities
Use engineering notation and metric prefixes to
express large and small quantities
Convert from one metric-prefixed unit to another

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 Resistors
Resistors limit electrical current in a circuit

(Two common types of individual fixed resistors)

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 Resistors

(Chip resistor and resistor networks)

(Common types of variable resistors)

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 Capacitors
Capacitors store electrical charge and are used to
block dc and pass ac

radial

(Common types of
fixed capacitors)
radial

radial

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 Capacitors

(Typical variable capacitors)

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 Inductors
Inductors, or coils, are used to store energy in an
electromagnetic field

(Some fixed and variable inductors)

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 Transformers
Transformers are used for ac coupling, or to
increase/decrease ac voltages

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 Semiconductor Devices
Wide selection of packages are used for semiconductor devices,
depending on the function and the power requirements

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 Power Supply
A dc power supply provides current and voltage to
power electronic circuits

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 Function Generator
A function generator provides electronic signals
for our circuits

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 Digital Multimeter
A digital multimeter (DMM) measures voltage,
current or resistance, depending upon the
function selected
– A voltmeter is used to measure
voltage across a component or
circuit
– An ammeter is used to measure
current through a circuit
– An ohmmeter is used to measure
resistance
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 Oscilloscope
The oscilloscope us used
for observing and
measuring ac voltage
signals in a circuit
Digital storage scopes are
able to store waveforms
Some digital scopes are
can perform analysis on
waveforms

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 Electrical Units
Letters are used in electronics to represent
quantities and units
The units and symbols are defined by the SI
system
– The term SI is the French abbreviation for
System International

Example:
I = 20 A, V = 110 V, R = 50 Ω, C = 0.1 F.
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 Electrical Units

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 Magnetic Units
Letters are also used to represent magnetic
quantities and units in the SI system

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 Scientific Notation
Scientific notation is a convenient method of
expressing large and small numbers
A quantity is expressed as a number between 1 and
10, and a power of ten

Example:
5000 = 5 × 103 85,000 = 8.5 × 104
0.3 = 3 × 10-1 0.00063 = 6.3 × 10-4

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 Engineering Notation
Engineering notation is similar to Scientific
notation, except that engineering notation can have
from 1 to 3 digits to the left of the decimal place,
and the powers of 10 are multiples of 3

Example:
82,000 = 82 × 103 1,956,000 = 1.956 × 106
0.0022 = 2.2 × 10-3 0.00033 = 330 × 10-6

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 Metric Prefixes
Metric prefixes are symbols that represent the
powers of ten used in Engineering notation

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 Example of Metric Prefix

(a) 50,000 V = 50 × 103 V = 50 kV

(b) 25,000,000 Ω = 25 × 106 Ω = 25 MV

(c) 0.0000367 A = 36.7 × 10-6 A = 36.7 µA

(d) 0.000000000005 F = 5 × 10-12 F = 5 pF

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 Scientific Notation vs
Engineering Notation

Consider the number: 23,000

In Scientific notation it would be expressed as:
2.3 × 104
In Engineering notation it would be expressed as:
23 × 103

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 Metric Unit Conversions
When converting from a larger unit to a smaller
unit, move the decimal point to the right
0.52 mA = 0.52 × 10-3 A = 520 × 10-6 A = 520 µA

When converting from a smaller unit to a larger

unit, move the decimal point to the left
700 nF = 700 × 10-9 F = 0.7 × 10-6 F = 0.7 µF

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 Summary
Resistors limit electric current
Capacitors store electrical charge
Inductors store energy in their electromagnetic field
Transformers magnetically couple ac voltages, and
may step these voltages up/down
Power supplies provide current and voltage
Digital multimeters (DMM) measure voltage, current
and resistance
Function generators provide electronic signals for
our circuits
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 Summary
An oscilloscope is used for observing and
measuring voltages in a circuit
Scientific notation expresses a number as one digit
to the left of the decimal point times a power of ten
Engineering notation expresses a number as one,
two or three digits to the left of the decimal point
times a power of ten that is a multiple of 3
Metric prefixes are symbols that represent the
powers of ten
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