10

Electronics 10
Learners Activity Sheet

Quarter 2 Week 1 and 2

Electrostatic and Electrodynamics
 ELECTRONICS ACTIVITY SHEET
(Electrostatic and Electrodynamics)

I. Learning Competency

a. Distinguish between conventional current and electron flow.

b. Apply the relationship charge = current x time to new situations or to solve
related problems
c. Relate the drift velocity of a collection of charged particles to the electrical
current
and current density.
d. Describe the effect of temperature increase on the resistance of a metallic
conductor
e. Describe the ability of a material to conduct current in terms of resistivity and
conductivity
f. Apply the relationship of the proportionality between resistance and the length
and cross-sectional area of a wire to solve problems

II. Background Information for Learners

This Learning Activity sheet was designed and written with you in mind. It is here to
help you solve problems involving current, resistivity, resistance, and Ohm’s law in
contexts such as, but not limited to, batteries and bulbs, household wiring, selection of
fuses, and accumulation of surface charge in the junction between wires made of different
materials. To draw circuit diagrams with power sources (cell or battery), switches,
lamps, resistors (fixed and variable) fuses, ammeters and voltmeters, so let’s begin.
 Electron Current vs. Conventional Current
In 1752, prior to electricity being identified with the electron, Ben Franklin chose a
convention regarding the direction of current flow. Franklin assumed that positive charge carriers
flowed from positive to negative terminals. We now know this is incorrect. In metals, the charge
carrier is the electron whose charge is negative by definition (note negative sign): (−1.6 × 10−19 C)
The flow of electrons is termed electron current. Electrons flow from the negative terminal to the
positive. Conventional current or simply current, behaves as if positive charge carriers cause
current flow. Conventional current flows from the positive terminal to the negative. Perhaps the
clearest way to think about this is to pretend as if movement of positive charge carriers constituted
current flow.

Electron Current Conventional Current

1. The electron current is the flow of negative charges or The conventional current is the flow of
electrons through a conductor. positive charges or holes through a
conductive medium.
2. Electron current flows from the negative terminal to the The conventional current flows from the
positive terminal of the battery. positive terminal of the battery to the
negative terminal.
3. It flows from electronegative potential to electropositive It flows from the electropositive potential
potential. to electronegative potential.
4. The electronegative potential has a high density of The electropositive potential has a high
electrons compared to the electropositive potential. density of positive charge compared to
the electronegative potential; therefore, it
flows out.
5. Electron current flow is technically the correct direction of Its direction is considered by convention &
current flow. it is technically wrong.
6. It is discovered after the discovery of electricity. This direction was assigned at the
discovery of electricity.
7. The electrical rules such as right-hand & left-hand and Many electrical components symbols
many other would change using this direction. were designed based on its direction such
as a diode, transistor
8. It is the real and actual direction of electric current. It is assumption to solve and analyze
electric circuits easily.
9. It is used in the recent books and circuit analysis It is an old school consideration mainly
techniques especially in electronic engineering books. used in electrical engineering books.
Electric Current
Electric current is defined to be the rate at which charge flows. A large current, such as that
used to start a truck engine, moves a large amount of charge in a small time, whereas a small
current, such as that used to operate a hand-held calculator, moves a small amount of charge over
a long period of time. In equation form, electric current I is defined to be

where ΔQ is the amount of charge passing through a given area in time Δt. (As in previous
chapters, initial time is often taken to be zero, in which case Δt = t.) (See Figure 1.) The SI unit for
current is the ampere (A), named for the French physicist André-Marie Ampère (1775–1836).
Since I = ΔQ/Δt, we see that an ampere is one coulomb per second:
1 A = 1 C/s
Not only are fuses and circuit breakers rated in amperes (or amps), so are many electrical
appliances.

Figure 1. The rate of flow of charge is current. An ampere is the flow of one coulomb through an
area in one second.
EXAMPLE 1. CALCULATING CURRENTS: CURRENT IN A TRUCK BATTERY AND A
HANDHELD CALCULATOR
(a) What is the current involved when a truck battery sets in motion 720 C of charge in 4.00 s
while starting an engine? (b) How long does it take 1.00 C of charge to flow through a handheld
calculator if a 0.300-mA current is flowing?
Strategy
We can use the definition of current in the equation I = ΔQ/Δt to find the current in part (a),
since charge and time are given. In part (b), we rearrange the definition of current and use the
given values of charge and current to find the time required.
Solution for (a)
Entering the given values for charge and time into the definition of current gives

Discussion for (a)

This large value for current illustrates the fact that a large charge is moved in a small
amount of time. The currents in these ―starter motors‖ are fairly large because large frictional
forces need to be overcome when setting something in motion.
Solution for (b)
Solving the relationship, I = ΔQ/Δt for time Δt, and entering the known values for charge
and current gives

Discussion for (b)

This time is slightly less than an hour. The small current used by the hand-held calculator
takes a much longer time to move a smaller charge than the large current of the truck starter. So
why can we operate our calculators only seconds after turning them on? It’s because calculators
require very little energy. Such small current and energy demands allow handheld calculators to
operate from solar cells or to get many hours of use out of small batteries. Remember, calculators
do not have moving parts in the same way that a truck engine has with cylinders and pistons, so
the technology requires smaller currents.

Figure 2 shows a simple circuit and the standard schematic representation of a battery, conducting
path, and load (a resistor). Schematics are very useful in visualizing the main features of a circuit.
A single schematic can represent a wide variety of situations. The schematic in Figure 2 (b), for
example, can represent anything from a truck battery connected to a headlight lighting the street in
front of the truck to a small battery connected to a penlight lighting a keyhole in a door. Such
schematics are useful because the analysis is the same for a wide variety of situations. We need
to understand a few schematics to apply the concepts and analysis to many more situations.

Figure 2. (a) A simple electric circuit. A closed path for current to flow through is supplied
by conducting wires connecting a load to the terminals of a battery. (b) In this schematic,
the battery is represented by the two parallel red lines, conducting wires are shown as
straight lines, and the zigzag represents the load. The schematic represents a wide variety
of similar circuits.

Note that the direction of current flow in Figure 2 is from positive to negative. The direction
of conventional current is the direction that positive charge would flow. Depending on the
situation, positive charges, negative charges, or both may move. In metal wires, for
example, current is carried by electrons—that is, negative charges move. In ionic
solutions, such as salt water, both positive and negative charges move. This is also true in
nerve cells. A Van de Graaff generator used for nuclear research can produce a current of
pure positive charges, such as protons. Figure 3 illustrates the movement of charged
particles that compose a current. The fact that conventional current is taken to be in the
direction that positive charge would flow can be traced back to American politician and
scientist Benjamin Franklin in the 1700s. He named the type of charge associated with
electrons negative, long before they were known to carry current in so many situations.
Franklin, in fact, was totally unaware of the small-scale structure of electricity. It is
important to realize that there is an electric field in conductors responsible for producing
the current, as illustrated in Figure 3. Unlike static electricity, where a conductor in
equilibrium cannot have an electric field in it, conductors carrying a current have an
electric field and are not in static equilibrium. An electric field is needed to supply energy to
move the charges.

MAKING CONNECTIONS: TAKE-HOME INVESTIGATION—ELECTRIC CURRENT

ILLUSTRATION

Find a straw and little pea that can move freely in the straw. Place the straw flat on a table
and fill the straw with peas. When you pop one pea in at one end, a different pea should pop out
the other end. This demonstration is an analogy for an electric current. Identify what compares to
the electrons and what compares to the supply of energy. What other analogies can you find for an
electric current? Note that the flow of peas is based on the peas physically bumping into each
other; electrons flow due to mutually repulsive electrostatic forces.

Figure 3. Current I is the rate at which charge moves through an area A, such as the cross-section
of a wire. Conventional current is defined to move in the direction of the electric field. (a) Positive
charges move in the direction of the electric field and the same direction as conventional current. (b)
Negative charges move in the direction opposite to the electric field. Conventional current is in the
direction opposite to the movement of negative charge. The flow of electrons is sometimes referred
to as electronic flow.

EXAMPLE 2. CALCULATING THE NUMBER OF ELECTRONS THAT MOVE THROUGH A

CALCULATOR
If the 0.300-mA current through the calculator mentioned in Example 1 is carried by electrons, how
many electrons per second pass through it?

Strategy
The current calculated in the previous example was defined for the flow of positive charge.
For electrons, the magnitude is the same, but the sign is opposite, Ielectrons = −0.300 × 10−3C/s.
Since each electron (e−) has a charge of –1.60×10−19 C, we can convert the current in coulombs
per second to electrons per second.
Solution
Starting with the definition of current, we have

We divide this by the charge per electron, so that

Discussion
There are so many charged particles moving, even in small currents, that individual
charges are not noticed, just as individual water molecules are not noticed in water flow. Even
more amazing is that they do not always keep moving forward like soldiers in a parade. Rather
they are like a crowd of people with movement in different directions but a general trend to move
forward. There are lots of collisions with atoms in the metal wire and, of course, with other
electrons.

Drift Velocity
Electrical signals are known to move very rapidly. Telephone conversations carried by
currents in wires cover large distances without noticeable delays. Lights come on as soon as a
switch is flicked. Most electrical signals carried by currents travel at speeds on the order of 108
m/s, a significant fraction of the speed of light. Interestingly, the individual charges that make up
the current move much more slowly on average, typically drifting at speeds on the order of 10−4
m/s. How do we reconcile these two speeds, and what does it tell us about standard conductors?
The high speed of electrical signals results from the fact that the force between charges acts
rapidly at a distance. Thus, when a free charge is forced into a wire, as in Figure 4, the incoming
charge pushes other charges ahead of it, which in turn push on charges farther down the line. The
density of charge in a system cannot easily be increased, and so the signal is passed on rapidly.
The resulting electrical shock wave moves through the system at nearly the speed of light. To be
precise, this rapidly moving signal or shock wave is a rapidly propagating change in electric field.
Figure 4. When charged particles are forced into this volume of a conductor, an equal number are
quickly forced to leave. The repulsion between like charges makes it difficult to increase the
number of charges in a volume. Thus, as one charge enters, other leaves almost immediately,
carrying the signal rapidly forward.

Good conductors have large numbers of free charges in them. In metals, the free charges
are free electrons. Figure 5 shows how free electrons move through an ordinary conductor. The
distance that an individual electron can move between collisions with atoms or other electrons is
quite small. The electron paths thus appear nearly random, like the motion of atoms in a gas. But
there is an electric field in the conductor that causes the electrons to drift in the direction shown
(opposite to the field, since they are negative). The drift velocity vd is the average velocity of the
free charges. Drift velocity is quite small, since there are so many free charges. If we have an
estimate of the density of free electrons in a conductor, we can calculate the drift velocity for a
given current. The larger the density, the lower the velocity required for a given current.

Figure 5. Free electrons moving in a conductor make many collisions with other electrons and
atoms. The path of one electron is shown. The average velocity of the free charges is called the
drift velocity, vd, and it is in the direction opposite to the electric field for electrons. The collisions
normally transfer energy to the conductor, requiring a constant supply of energy to maintain a
steady current.
 CONDUCTION OF ELECTRICITY AND HEAT

Good electrical conductors are often good heat conductors, too. This is because large
numbers of free electrons can carry electrical current and can transport thermal energy.
The free-electron collisions transfer energy to the atoms of the conductor. The electric field
does work in moving the electrons through a distance, but that work does not increase the kinetic
energy (nor speed, therefore) of the electrons. The work is transferred to the conductor’s atoms,
possibly increasing temperature. Thus, a continuous power input is required to keep a current
flowing. An exception, of course, is found in superconductors, for reasons we shall explore in a
later chapter. Superconductors can have a steady current without a continual supply of energy—a
great energy savings. In contrast, the supply of energy can be useful, such as in a light bulb
filament. The supply of energy is necessary to increase the temperature of the tungsten filament,
so that the filament glows.

MAKING CONNECTIONS: TAKE-HOME INVESTIGATION—FILAMENT OBSERVATIONS

Find a light bulb with a filament. Look carefully at the filament and describe its structure. To
what points is the filament connected?
We can obtain an expression for the relationship between current and drift velocity by considering
the number of free charges in a segment of wire, as illustrated in Figure 6. The number of free
charges per unit volume is given the symbol n and depends on the material. The shaded segment
has a volume , so that the number of free charges in it is nAx. The charge ΔQ in this segment is
thus qnAx, where q is the amount of charge on each carrier. (Recall that for electrons, q is −1.60 ×
10−19 C.) Current is charge moved per unit time; thus, if all the original charges move out of this
segment in time Δt, the current is

Note that x/Δt is the magnitude of the drift velocity, vd, since the charges move an average
distance x in a time Δt. Rearranging terms gives

where I is the current through a wire of cross-sectional area A made of a material with a free charge density
n. The carriers of the current each have charge q and move with a drift velocity of magnitude vd.
Figure 6. All the charges in the shaded volume of this wire move out in a time t, having a drift
velocity of magnitude vd = x/t. See text for further discussion.

Note that simple drift velocity is not the entire story. The speed of an electron is much
greater than its drift velocity. In addition, not all of the electrons in a conductor can move freely,
and those that do might move somewhat faster or slower than the drift velocity. So, what do we
mean by free electrons? Atoms in a metallic conductor are packed in the form of a lattice structure.
Some electrons are far enough away from the atomic nuclei that they do not experience the
attraction of the nuclei as much as the inner electrons do. These are the free electrons. They are
not bound to a single atom but can instead move freely among the atoms in a ―sea‖ of electrons.
These free electrons respond by accelerating when an electric field is applied. Of course, as they
move, they collide with the atoms in the lattice and other electrons, generating thermal energy, and
the conductor gets warmer. In an insulator, the organization of the atoms and the structure do not
allow for such free electrons.

EXAMPLE 3. CALCULATING DRIFT VELOCITY IN A COMMON WIRE

Calculate the drift velocity of electrons in a 12-gauge copper wire (which has a diameter of
2.053 mm) carrying a 20.0-A current, given that there is one free electron per copper atom.
(Household wiring often contains 12-gauge copper wire, and the maximum current allowed in such
wire is usually 20 A.) The density of copper is 8.80 × 10 3 kg/m3.
Strategy
We can calculate the drift velocity using the equation I = nqAvd. The current I = 20.0 A is
given, and q = –1.60×10–19 C is the charge of an electron. We can calculate the area of a cross
section of the wire using the formula A = πr2 , where r is one-half the given diameter, 2.053 mm.
We are given the density of copper, 8.80 × 103 kg/m3 and the periodic table shows that the
atomic mass of copper is 63.54 g/mol. We can use these two quantities along with Avogadro’s
number, 6.02 × 1023 atoms/mol, to determine n, the number of free electrons per cubic meter.
Solution
First, calculate the density of free electrons in copper. There is one free electron per copper
atom. Therefore, is the same as the number of copper atoms per m 3. We can now find n as
follows:
The cross-sectional area of the wire is

Rearranging I = nqAvd to isolate drift velocity gives

Discussion
The minus sign indicates that the negative charges are moving in the direction opposite to
conventional current. The small value for drift velocity (on the order of 10 –4 m/s) confirms that the
signal moves on the order of 1012 times faster (about 108 m/s) than the charges that carry it.