OCR (B) Physics GCSE

Chapter 3: Electric Circuits

Summary Notes
(Contents in bold is for Higher Tier Only)

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P3.1 What is Electric Charge?

Charge
Around every electric charge there is an electric field; in this region of space the effects of charge
can be felt; when another charge enters the field there is an interaction between them and both
charges experience a force. Charge is a property of all matter:
• Positive and negative charges exist
• If a body has the same amount of positive and negative charge, they cancel out, forming a
neutral body (i.e. protons and electrons in a neutral atom)
• Like charges repel
• Opposite charges attract

Electric Fields
Like magnetic fields for magnets, electric fields are for charges. They point in the direction a positive
charge would go i.e. away from positive charges, and towards negative charges, at right angles to
the surface.
• Stronger the charge, the more field lines present and the stronger the force felt
• Closer to the charge, the stronger the force felt

The charged objects experience a force – electrostatic force (of attraction/repulsion)

• Greater charge = greater force (e.g. a more positive object, a more negative object)
• Closer together = greater force (force is proportional to the inverse square of the distance)
• It is a non-contact force, as force can be felt even when the objects are not touching

Static Electricity (Physics only)

Insulators do not conduct electricity - their electrons cannot flow throughout the material, they are
fixed. When two insulators are rubbed together:
• Electrons are transferred from one object to the other
• Forming a positive charge on one object and a negative charge on the other
Insulators become charged because the electrons cannot flow
• A positive static charge forms on object which loses electrons
• A negative static charge forms on object which gains electrons
• Which object loses/gains electrons depends on the materials involved
Sparking occurs when enough charge builds up, and the objects are close but not touching. The
“spark” is when the charge jumps through the air from the highly negative object to the highly
positive object, to balance out the charges

Conductors can conduct electricity - their electrons can flow, and are not fixed (they are delocalised).
If conductors were rubbed, electrons will flow in/out of them cancelling out any effect, so they stay
neutral.

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P3.2 What Determines the Current in an Electric Circuit?
Electrical Current
Current is the flow of electrical charge. For charge to flow the circuit must be closed (no open
switches) and there must be a source of potential difference (battery/cell). Greater the rate of flow
of charge, greater current.
Q=It
Where Q is the charge flow, in coulombs C, I is the current, in amperes A and t is the time in seconds
s. In a single closed loop, the current has the same value at any point

The current (I) through a component depends on both the resistance (R) of the component and the
potential difference (V) across the component. Current, potential difference or resistance can be
calculated using the equation:
V=IR
Where V is the potential difference in volts V, I is the current in amperes A, and R is the resistance in
ohms Ω. The greater the resistance of the component the smaller the current for a given potential
difference (pd) across the component.

Resistors
If the resistance is constant, an ohmic conductor, current is directly proportional to the potential
difference, in this case the graph is linear. If the resistance of components such as lamps, diodes,
thermistors and LDRs is not constant it changes with the current through the component, so the
graph is nonlinear, for example, the resistance of a filament lamp increases as the temperature of
the filament increases and the current through a diode flows in one direction only, so it has a higher
resistance in the reverse direction.

1: WordPress.com

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How does the resistance change?
• With current
• As current increases, electrons (charge) has more energy
• When electrons flow through a resistor, they collide with the atoms in the resistor
• This transfers energy to the atoms, causing them to vibrate more
• This makes it more difficult for electrons to flow through the resistor, so resistance
increases, and current decreases
• With temperature
• Normal wires - See above, the same process occurs as atoms vibrate when hot
• Thermistor
• In hotter temperatures the resistance is lower
• These are often used in temperature detectors/thermostats
• With light
• LDR (Light Dependent Resistor)
• The greater the intensity of light, the lower the resistance
• So the resistance is greatest when it is dark
• These are used in automatic night lights.
• With voltage
• Diodes
• Diode allows current to flow freely in one direction
• In the opposite direction, it has a very high resistance so no current can flow

Circuit Symbols

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P3.3 How do Series and Parallel Circuits work?
Series and Parallel Circuits
• Series Circuits
• Closed circuit
• Current only follows a single path

• Parallel Circuits
• Branched circuit
• Current splits into multiple paths

Series
In a series circuit, components are connected end to end, all the
current flows through all the components and you can only switch
off all components at once.
Potential difference is shared across the whole circuit bbc.co.uk
PD of power supply=sum of PD across each component
Current is the same through all parts of the circuit
Current at one point=current at any other point
Total Resistance is the sum of the resistance in each component
Resistance of two components is bigger than just one of them, because the
charge has to push through both of them when flowing round the circuit

Parallel
In a parallel circuit, components are connected separately to the power supply, current flows
through each one separately and you can switch each component off individually.
Potential difference is the same across all branches
PD of power supply=PD of each branch
Because charge can only pass through any one branch, current is shared between each of
the branches
Current through source=sum of current through each branch
Total resistance is less than the branch with the smallest resistance. Two resistors in parallel
will have a smaller overall resistance than just one. Because charge has more than one
branch to
take, so only some charge will flow along each branch

Potential Difference
When electric charge flows through a component (or device), work is done by the power
supply and energy is transferred from it to the component and/or its surroundings. Potential
difference measures the work done per unit charge.

W
V=
Q

Where V is the Potential Difference in volts ,V, W is the work done in Joules, J, and Q is the charge in
coulombs, C.

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P3.4 What determines the Rate of Energy Transfer in a Circuit?
Power
Power rating of an appliance shows the power it uses in Watts, so greater power rating
means it uses more energy.
Power is defined as the rate at which energy is transferred or the rate at which work is done:
P = IV
The power P, is in watts, I, the current, is in Amperes, A, W the potential difference, in volts,
V.

Step-Up Transformers
The National Grid uses transformers to step down the current for power transmission.
Transformers change the potential difference. The power output from a transformer cannot
be greater than the power input, due to the conservation of energy, therefore if the current
increases, the potential difference must decrease.
P()** = I + R
The power loss, P, is in watts, I, the current, is in Amperes, A, R the resistance, in Ohms.
From this it is apparent that transmitting power with a lower current through the cables
results in less power being dissipated during transmission and thus a higher efficiency.

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P3.5 What are Magnetic Fields?
Magnetic Fields
• Field Lines point from North to South
• Strength decreases with distance from the
magnet
• Direction always points to north pole and away
from south pole, at any point
• Use Plotting Compasses
• Small compasses which show the direction of
the magnetic field at a certain point

Magnets have a North and South Poles where same

Poles repel and opposite poles attract.

Permanent Magnets always magnetic, always have

poles.
Induced Magnets are “magnetic” materials but do not
2: schoolphysics.co.uk
have fixed poles.These can be made into temporary
magnets by ‘stroking’ them with a permanent magnet.
(e.g. Iron, Nickel, Cobalt)

Earth’s Magnetic Core

The Earth’s core is magnetic, and creates a large magnetic field around the Earth. We know
this because a freely suspended magnetic compass will align itself with the earth’s field lines
and point North.

A compass is effectively a suspended Bar Magnet, with its own north pole lining up with
Earth’s ‘North pole’
However this cannot be right, as like poles repel
So in fact, Earth’s magnetic pole above Canada is a magnetic South Pole! (and the
geographic south pole is close to the Magnetic North Pole)

Current
• Current produces a magnetic field around the
wire
• The direction is dictated by the “right hand grip
rule”
• Plotting compasses on a piece of paper
through which a wire is pierced shows this

Strength of Magnetic Field

• Greater current, stronger magnetic field
• Greater distance from wire, weaker field

Solenoid
• Magnetic field shape is similar to a bar magnet
• It enhances the magnetic effect as coiling the wire causes the field to align and form
a giant single field, rather than lots of them all perpendicular to the direction of the
current

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 • Having an iron core in the centre increases its strength as it is easier for magnetic
field lines to pass through than air

Factors that affect the strength:

• Size of current
• Length
• Cross sectional area
• Number of turns (coils)
• Using a soft iron core

3: hyperphysics.co.uk
Loudspeakers
• The setup is identical, working in reverse
• The current flows into the coil
• The magnetic field from magnet and from current interact, causing the coil to move
• The cone therefore moves
• Producing pressure variations, making sound

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P3.6 How do Electric Motors Work?
The Motor Effect
• Two magnets will interact, feeling a magnetic force
of attraction/repulsion.
• So a magnet and a wire will also exert a force, as
the two magnetic fields (generated by the magnet
and the current in the wire) will also interact
• The magnetic field around a wire is circular, but the
magnetic field between two magnets is straight
• When the two interact, the wire is pushed away
from the field between the poles (at right angles to
the wire direction and the field direction)

To visualise
• Fixed permanent magnets have field lines along the
x axis, as the magnets are at A and B and the field
lines are shown
• Wire is along y axis, where current is moving up
from C to D
• The force felt on the wire is at right angles to both the direction of the current
and magnetic field lines, along the z axis

Fleming’s Left-Hand Rule

• Each direction is 90° to each other

• Use this to work out the unknown factor out of
the three (usually the direction of the force felt)
• Remember current is conventional current, which
moves in opposite direction to the electrons
4: BBC.co.uk

Force on a current-carrying conductor can be calculated

as followed:
F = BIL

Where Magnetic Flux Density, B, is measured in Tesla and it is the number of flux
lines per metre squared. F, the Force in Newtons [N], I, the current in Amperes [A] and
L, the length in metres [m].

How Electric Motors work

• Knowledge of structure is not required
• Permanent Magnets lie in fixed positions
• In between, a coil of current-carrying wire lies on
an axis
• Force on one side moves that side up
• Force on the other side (where current is
flowing in opposite direction) moves down
• This can be verified using Fleming’s Left-
Hand Rule
• Hence it rotates

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P3.7 What is the Process inside an Electric Generator? (Physics
only)
Electromagnetic Induction (Physics only)
• When there is a relative movement between a conductor and a magnetic field, a
potential difference is induced across the conductor.
• This happens if the magnetic field changes as well
• A current flows if the conductor forms a complete circuit.
• This current will produce its own magnetic field, which oppose the change
inducing it

How Electric Generators work (Physics only)

• Same setup as a motor, with a coil of wire able to
rotate between two permanent magnets
• A turbine spins turning the coil of wire
• The movement of the wire causes the wire to cut
through the magnetic field
• It experiences a change in magnetic field
• This creates a potential difference
• If the coil of wire is connected to a complete
circuit, an alternating current (AC) will flow –
this is a basic alternator, as shown above

• Direct current (DC) current is produced if the

ends, A and D in diagram above, are connected
to a split ring commutator
• This reverses the current each half-rotation so 5: electronics-tutorials.com
current remains positive – this system is
called a dynamo

AC produced by Alternator and DC produced by Dynamo:

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Transformers (Physics only)

• AC in first coil creates a changing

magnetic field
• This changing magnetic field cuts
through the secondary coil
• This induces a current in the secondary
coil
• Which is also AC
• If primary current was DC,
magnetic field it produces will be
constant, not inducing anything in
the secondary coil
• More coils on secondary: Step up
transformer, as voltage will be increased,
as changing field will cut through more of
the secondary wire inducing a larger PD
• Fewer coils on secondary: Step down transformer, as smaller PD induced on
secondary

For a 100% efficient transformer:

𝐍𝐩 𝐕𝐩 𝐈𝐬
= =
𝐍𝐬 𝐕𝐬 𝐈𝐩
Where Np is the number of turns on primary coil, Ns, is the number of turns on
secondary coil. Vp is the potential difference across primary coil, Vs is the
potential difference across secondary coil. Ip is current across primary coil and
Is is the current across secondary.

How Dynamic Microphones Work (Physics only)

• They produce a current which is proportional to the sound signal
• Fixed magnet is at the centre, and the coil of wire around the magnet is free to
move
• Pressure variations in the sound waves cause the coil to move, and as it
moves current is induced in the coil (because it cuts the magnetic field)
• This current is then sent to a loudspeaker

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