ELECTRIC & MAGNET

ELECTRIC CURRENT, CHARGE, DENSITY & DRIFT VELOCITY RESISTANCE & RELUCTANCE EFFECT OF TEMPERATURE ON RESISTANCE 5th LECTURE Semester 2 2011/2012

Overview
Charges in motion
mechanical motion electric current

How charges move in a conductor Definition of electric current Resistance vs. Temperature

Charges in Motion
Up to now we have considered
fixed charges on isolated bodies motion under simple forces (e.g. a single charge moving in a constant electric field)

We have also considered conductors

charges are free to move
we also said that E=0 inside a conductor

If E=0 and there is any friction (resistance) present

no charge will move!

Charges in motion
We know from experience that charges do move inside conductors - this is the definition of a conductor

Is there a contradiction?
no

Up to now we have considered isolated conductors in equilibrium.

Charge has nowhere to go except shift around on the body. Charges shift until they cancel the E field, then come to rest.

Now we consider circuits in which charges can circulate if driven by a force such as a battery.

Current Definition
+ +

E
+

+
+

Consider charges moving down a conductor in which there is an electric field. definition assumes Note: This If I take a The current in the direction of cross section of the wire, over some amount of time Dt I will count positive particles, charges (or total the a certain number of amount of charge) DQ moving by. We define currentdirection of of these quantities, NOT in the as the ratio the electrons!

Iavg = DQ / Dt

or

I = Q/ t

Units for I, Coulombs/Second (C/s) or Amperes (A)

How charges move in a conducting material

v av

Electric force causes gradual drift of bouncing electrons down the wire in the direction of -E.

Drift speed of the electrons is VERY slow compared to the speed of their bouncing motion, roughly 1 m / h !
(see example later)

Good conductors are those with LOTS of mobile electrons.

How charges move in a conducting material

v av

DQ is the number of carriers in some volume times the charge on each carrier (q). Let n be the carrier density, n = # carriers / volume.

The relevant volume is A * (vd Dt). Why ???

So, DQ = n A vd Dt q And Iavg = DQ/Dt = n A vd q More on this later

Drift speed in a copper wire

The copper wire in a typical residential building has a cross-section area of 3.31e-6 m2. If it carries a current of 10.0 A, what is the drift speed of the electrons? (Assume that each copper atom contributes one free electron to the current.) The density of copper is 8.95 g/cm3, its molar mass 63.5 g/mol. Volume of 1 mol copper: Because each copper atom contributes one free electron to the current, we have (n = #carriers/volume)

Drift speed in a copper wire, ctd.

We find that the drift speed is with charge / electron q Thus

Then why a light turns on almost instantaneously when its switch flipped ??????

Resistance
Resistance

Resistance is defined to be the ratio of the applied voltage to the current passing through.
R V I
UNIT: OHM = W

I
V

If the resistance of a material is constant over a considerable range of voltage, then the material is described to obeys Ohm's law.

Ohm's Law
Vary applied voltage V.

I
V
V R I

Measure current I
Does ratio ( V/I ) remain constant??

slope = R = constant

Resistivity
Electrical resistivity is a measure of how strongly a material opposes the flow of electric current. A low resistivity indicates a material that readily allows the movement of electrical charge. The SI unit of electrical resistivity is the ohm meter. Resistivity or Rho is defined as:

E
j A L

E j
where E = electric field and j = current density in conductor = I/A.

Resistivity
E
j A L

From other equations, it is found that resistance R can be expressed :

L R A

So, in fact, we can compute the resistance if we know a bit about the device, and YES, the property belongs only to the device ! eg, for a copper wire, ~ 10-8 W-m, 1mm radius, 1 m long, then R .01W

Make sense?
R L A

E j

Increase the Length, flow of electrons impeded Increase the cross sectional Area, flow facilitated

The structure of this relation is identical to heat flow through materials think of a window for an intuitive example

How thick?

or

How big?

Whats it made of?

Table 27-1, p.837

Example
Two cylindrical resistors, R1 and R2, are made of identical material. R2 has twice the length of R1 but half the radius of R1. These resistors are then connected to a battery V as shown:
I1 I2

What is the relation between I1, the current flowing in R1 , and I2 , the current flowing in R2?

(a) I1 < I2

(b) I1 = I2

(c) I1 > I2

Example
Two cylindrical resistors, R1 and R2, are made of identical material. R2 has twice the length of R1 but half the radius of R1. These resistors are then connected to a battery V as shown:
I1

I2

What is the relation between I1, the current flowing in R1 , and I2 , the current flowing in R2?

(a) I1 < I2

(b) I1 = I2

(c) I1 > I2

The resistivity of both resistors is the same (). Therefore the resistances are related as:

L 2 L1 L R2 2 8 1 8R1 A2 ( A1 / 4) A1
The resistors have the same voltage across them; therefore

I2

V V 1 I1 R 2 8 R1 8

Table 27-2, p.838

Current Idea

v av

Current is the flow of charged particles through a path, at circuit.

Along a simple path current is conserved, cannot create or destroy the charged particles
Closely analogous to fluid flow through a pipe.

Charged particles = particles of fluid

Circuit = pipes Resistance = friction of fluid against pipe walls, with itself.

Example
Consider a circuit consisting of a single loop containing a battery and a resistor.
Which of the graphs represents the current I around the loop?
2 1 4

R
I
3

1 -

1 +

1 +

Example

1 +

1 +

Which of the graphs represents the current I around the loop?

The general rule for any component in a circuit current in = current out
Works for conductors, batteries, resistors... There is only one way in and one way out for each component in this circuit Therefore the current everywhere must be the same

Example, addendum

1 +

1 +

1 +

Which of the graphs represents the potential V around the loop? The battery maintains a positive potential difference between its positive and negative terminals. Current in all components must be the same. Large electric fields are required to make current I flow in a resistor, compared to the conductor. Electric field in the conductor is very small so we can consider that the potential is constant there.

A more detailed model

v av

Iavg = DQ/Dt = n A vd q Difficult to know vd directly.

Can calculate it.

A more detailed model

E

v av

Iavg = DQ/Dt = n A vd q
The force on a charged particle is,

If we start from v=0 (on average) after a collision then we reach a speed, t : average
collision-free time

Substituting gives, (note j = I/A)

or

A more detailed model

E
v av

This formula is still true for most materials even for the most detailed quantum mechanical treatment. In quantum mechanics the electron can be described as a wave. Because of this the electron will not scatter off of atoms that are perfectly in place in a crystal. Electrons will scatter off of 1. Vibrating atoms (proportional to temperature) 2. Other electrons (proportional to temperature squared) 3. Defects in the crystal (independent of temperature)

Conductivity versus Temperature

Over a limited temperature range, the resistivity of a conductor varies approximately linearly with temperature. This implies RT. But R will generally not decreases to 0 at low temperature. For insulators R1/T. For some special material R decreases to 0 below certain temperature Tc (critical temperature). This material is known as Superconductor. This was a major area of research 100 years ago and still is today.