Contents

Questions ...................................................................................................................................................... 2 Electric Charge .......................................................................................................................................... 3 Electric Current ......................................................................................................................................... 3 Voltage ...................................................................................................................................................... 3 Dependent Sources ................................................................................................................................... 4 Power ........................................................................................................................................................ 4 Energy ....................................................................................................................................................... 4 Resistivity .................................................................................................................................................. 5 Temperature Effects On Resistivity .......................................................................................................... 5 Conductors ............................................................................................................................................ 5 Superconductors ................................................................................................................................... 6 Bibliography .................................................................................................................................................. 7

Questions
1. Define the following: a) Electric Charge b) Electric Current c) Voltage d) Dependent Sources e) Power f) Energy g) Resistivity 2. What are the effects of temperature on resistivity of any electric conductor

Electric Charge
Everyday forces, except gravity such as contact forces and contact in forces, are fundamentally electrical. They arise because of interactions among the nucleus and electrons of atoms. In order to explain these electrical effects, particles are assigned the property of charge. Hence an electric charge is a property assigned to certain particles, for example quarks, electrons and hadrons, to explain their interactions with matter. It is must be noted that electric charge is not created; rather it is transferred from one object to another giving rise to a law for the conservation of charge. The unit of charge is the coulomb C and which is the quantity of charge that passes any section of a conductor in one second when a current of one ampere is flowing. The two types of charge are positive and negative charge. There are many applications of static electricity but the basis of electrical engineering is the manipulation of electric current.

Electric Current
An electric current is the net flow of charged particles or it is the rate of flow of electric charge with respect to time. In metals the charge is carried mainly by electrons, while ions and holes act as charge carriers in gases and p type semiconductors respectively. The unit of current is the ampere. 1 A= . The current direction is always taken to be that in which positive charges flow. To maintain a current in, say, a conducting wire, a voltage is needed.

Voltage
Whenever a current flows from one point to another, it does so because the electric potentials at the two points are different. Current always move from a point of high potential to one of lower potential, hence we say a current moves through a potential difference. Potential difference is measured in volts, hence the terms potential difference and voltage are used interchangeably. Whenever an electric charge flows from one point to another, there is an expenditure of energy. Hence, voltage is an indication of how much energy is involved in moving a charge between two points in an electrical system. The higher the voltage rating of a system, the more energy will be available to move the charge through the system

Dependent Sources
A dependent or controlled source is one whose magnitude is determined (or controlled) by a current or voltage of the system in which it appears

Unlike independent sources, if the configuration of the circuit changes, the magnitude of the dependent source will, in most cases, change; the exception being of course if the system is designed in such a way that the magnitude of the dependent source remains the same. The most typical example of a dependent source is a transistor. In a BJT transistor the collector current depends on the base current.

Power
As explained earlier, when an electric charge flows from one point to the other, potential energy is lost (since the point of higher potential has more energy than the point of lower energy). The energy lost is dissipated and it can be made useful. The rate of dissipation1 of energy is known as the power, P. The power of a system is an indication of how much energy it can dissipate in a specified amount of time. All the power dissipated may not necessarily be useful. The unit of power is watt. There are several formulae used for calculating power eg P= V*I. Power can be either delivered or absorbed by electrical components, for example a dc voltage source delivers energy while a resistor absorbs energy which it dissipates in the form of heat.

Energy
In electric systems, energy is converted from one form to another, in accordance with the law of conservation of energy. From energy conservation, a change in electric potential means that conversion between two forms of energy takes place for example, a battery converts stored chemical energy into electric potential energy. Energy therefore is a quantity either gained or lost by a system. It a measure of the work done on an electric charge when it moves from one potential to another. Energy is measured in joules. One of the formula for calculating energy is Energy (W) =Q*V, where Q is the charge and V is the potential difference.

Dissipation in this context means the conversion of energy from an organized form to a disorganized form.

Resistivity
In any material, except superconductors, there is some amount of opposition to the flow of electric current. This opposition to electric current, which is analogous the friction in mechanical systems, is known as resistance. If there was no resistance in a system, then no potential difference would be required to maintain a flow of current. Resistance is given by R=l/A. The length and area of a material can be varied however, the resistivity of the material has the greatest influence on the resistance.

Resistivity is the intrinsic property of a particular material at a particular temperature that determines whether the material will have a high or low resistance to current flow. Conductors have low resistivity while insulators have extremely high resistivity. The two factors that determine the resistivity of a metal are: the number of conduction electrons per unit volume and the rate of collisions between an electron and an ion, and changes in temperature.

Temperature Effects On Resistivity

The effect of temperature on resistivity is different for conductors, semiconductors, superconductors and insulators. Conductors As electrons move through a metal, they collide with the positive ions of the lattice. On collision, the kinetic energy which an electron has gained as a result of being accelerated by the field is transferred to the ion with which it has collided. This increases the vibrational energy of the lattice, and so increases the temperature of the metal. Based on this discussion, it can be concluded that both the heating effect of a current and the electrical resistance are results of electron collisions with the lattice. If the temperature of a metal is increased, the amplitudes of vibration of the lattice ions increase and therefore the ions present a larger collision cross-section to the electrons. As a result, the electrons collide more frequently, and this accounts for the observation that the resistivity of a metal, or in general a conductor, increases with temperature. The resistivity at a particular temperature is calculated as follows: = o(1 + t) where o is the resistivity at temperature To , is the temperature coefficient of resistivity of the material and is the resistivity at temperature T= To + t. Because the temperature of conductors increases with temperature, they are said to have a positive coefficient of resistivity.

Superconductors Superconductors are conductors that, for all practical purposes, have zero resistivity. This however, is only possible at extremely low temperatures i.e near to absolute zero. As the temperature is increased, superconductors start to exhibit the properties of conductors.

Bibliography
Boylestad. Introductory Circuit Analysis (10 ed.). Floyd, T. (2005). Electronic Devices & Circuit Theory. (7th, Ed.) Pearson Prentice Hall. Giambattista, A., Richardson, B. M., & C.Richardson, R. (2007). College Physics (Vol. 2). McGraw Hill. Muncaster, R. (2005). A Level Physics (4th ed.). Oxford Printing Press.