BASIC CONCEPTS

Electric Network
Electric circuit
Charge
Current

Basic Voltage
Power
Concepts Energy
Resistance
Resistivity
Conductance
Conductivity
 Electric Network and Electric Circuit
• Electric Network: An electrical network is an interconnection of electrical components.
• Electric Circuit: The interconnection of electrical components in a closed loop giving a return path for the
current.
• Any combination, whether it is open loop or closed loop, having return current path or not, giving output or not,
made by active or passive elements and ultimately should have two or more components or at least one branch is
called network.
• In circuit there must be one or more close paths, must be at least one active element, must be return current path,
must provide output.
• All the circuits are must be network, but all the networks may or may not be circuit.

An Electric circuit
 Charge
• Charge is an electrical property of the atomic particles of which matter consists.
• Unit: Coulombs (C)
• Two types of charges:
1. Positive charge (protons) +1.602×10^ -19 C
2. Negative charge (electrons) -1. 602×10^ -19 C
• There is equal positive and negative charge and thus atom is electrically neutral.
• All charges that exists are integral multiple of 1.602× 10^ -19.
• Charge, Q= n×e where n= number of electrons and e= charge on one electron.
• 1 coulomb is a large unit of charge. In one coulomb there are 1/(1.602× 10^-19) =0.624×10^19 electrons.
• Law of conservation of charge states that charge can neither be created nor destroyed.
 Current
• Charges in motion.
• The flow of electric charge is called current.
• It is the time rate of change of charge.
• I=Q/T where Q is charge and T is time.
• Unit: Ampere(A).
• 1A=1C/1s.
• It is convention to take the current flow as movement of positive charges, that is opposite to the flow of negative
charges.
• Direct current: current which remains constant with time.
• Alternating current: current which varies sinusoidally with time.
 Voltage/ Electric potential
• To move an electron in a conductor in a particular direction requires work or energy transfer this work is
performed by an external electromotive force (emf), represented by battery.
• It is also known as voltage or potential difference.
• Voltage, V= Work done (energy) /charge
• Unit: volts.
• Volt= Joules/Coulomb or newton meter/Coulomb
• It is also defined as energy required to move a unit charge through an element.
• Potential difference: The difference in the potential of two charged bodies.
• Current is always through an element and voltage is always across the element of between two points.
• A voltage can exists between a pair of electrical terminals whether a current is flowing or not.
• Current will flow in a circuit only if potential difference exists. No potential difference, no current flows.
 Power
• Rate of doing work.
• It is time rate of expending or absorbing energy.
• Unit: Watts.
• Power, P= work done/time
• Watts= Joules/second
• P= V×I where V is voltage and I is current.
• Power conventions:
1. If power has a positive sign that means power has been absorbed by an element.
2. If it has negative sign then power is delivered by an element.
3. If current enters through the positive polarity of voltage, p= +vi that means element is absorbing power.
4. If current enters the negative terminal, p= -vi that means element is supplying power.
 Power
• Power is delivered by source and absorbed by load.
• Law of conservation of energy must be obeyed in any electrical circuit. The algebraic sum of power in a
circuit at any instant of time must be zero.
• Total power= 0.
• Power absorbed= - power delivered
• For source, power delivered= +vi, power absorbed=-vi
• For load, power absorbed=+ vi, power delivered= -vi
 Energy
• The capacity to do work.
• Energy(work done)= power×time
• W= p×t= v×i×t
• Unit: Joules (J).
• Joule= watt×sec
• Commercial unit: Kilowatt-hour(kwh). Power in kwatt and time in hour.
 Resistance and Resistivity
Resistance (R):
• The resistance(R) of an element represents the ability to resist the flow of electric current.
• Unit Ohms .
• Resistance depends on length, area of cross-section, nature of material type and physical conditions like
temperature.
Resistivity:
• Resistivity is the characteristics property of the material by which it resist the amount of current through it.
• Resistivity is also known as specific resistance.
• It depends on material type and physical conditions like temperature.
• It does not change with change in dimensions(length and area).
• Unit: Ohm- meter.
 Conductance and conductivity
Conductance (G) :

• It is the degree to which an object conducts electricity. It is the reciprocal of the resistance.

• G=1/R.

• A circuit with high conductance has low resistance and with low conductance has high resistance.

• Unit: siemens (s) or mhos.

Conductivity

• It is a property of materials that determines how well a given material will conduct electricity.

• It is the reciprocal of resistivity of a conductor.

• Units: Siemens per meter (S/m).