Chapter 25

Current, Resistance, and

Electromotive Force

PowerPoint® Lectures for

University Physics, 14th Edition
– Hugh D. Young and Roger A. Freedman Lectures by Jason Harlow
© 2016 Pearson Education Inc.
 Learning Goals for Chapter 25
Looking forward at …
• the meaning of electric current, and how charges move in a
conductor.
• how to calculate the resistance of a conductor from its
dimensions and its resistivity or conductivity.
• how an electromotive force (emf) makes it possible for
current to flow in a circuit.
• how to do calculations involving energy and power in
circuits.
• how to use a simple model to understand the flow of current
in metals.
© 2016 Pearson Education Inc.
 Introduction
• Electric circuits contain
charges in motion.
• In a flashlight, the amount of
current that flows out of the
bulb is the same as the amount
that flows into the bulb.
• It is the energy of the charges that decreases as the current
flows through light bulbs.
• Circuits are at the heart of modern devices such as computers,
televisions, and industrial power systems.

© 2016 Pearson Education Inc.

 Current
• A current is any motion of
charge from one region to
another.

© 2016 Pearson Education Inc.

 Direction of current flow
• A current can be produced by positive or negative charge
flow.
• Conventional current is treated as a flow of positive charges.
• In a metallic conductor, the moving charges are electrons —
but the current still points in the direction positive charges
would flow.

© 2016 Pearson Education Inc.

 Signs of charge carriers
• In general, a conductor may
contain several different kinds
of moving charged particles.
• An example is current flow in
an ionic solution.
• In the sodium chloride solution
shown, current can be carried
by both positive sodium ions and negative chlorine ions
• The total current I is found by adding up the currents due to
each kind of charged particle.

© 2016 Pearson Education Inc.

 Current density
• We can define a vector current density that includes the
direction of the drift velocity:

• The vector current density is always in the same direction as

the electric field, no matter what the signs of the charge
carriers are.

© 2016 Pearson Education Inc.

 Resistivity
• The resistivity of a material is the ratio of the electric field in
the material to the current density it causes:

• The conductivity is the reciprocal of the resistivity.

• The next slide shows the resistivity of various types of
materials.

© 2016 Pearson Education Inc.

 Resistivities at room temperature (20°C)

Substance ρ (Ω ∙ m)
Copper 1.72 ×10−8
Conductors Gold 2.44 ×10−8
Lead 22 ×10−8

Semiconductor: Pure carbon (graphite) 3.5 ×10−5

Glass 1010 – 1014
Insulators Teflon >1013
Wood 108 – 1011
© 2016 Pearson Education Inc.
 Circuit boards and resistivity
• The copper “wires,” or traces, on this circuit board are printed
directly onto the surface of the dark-colored insulating board.
• Even though the traces are
very close to each other, the
board has such a high
resistivity that essentially no
current can flow between the
traces.

© 2016 Pearson Education Inc.

 Resistivity and temperature
• The resistivity of a metallic
conductor nearly always
increases with increasing
temperature.
• Over a small temperature
range, the resistivity of a
metal can be represented
approximately:

© 2016 Pearson Education Inc.

 Temperature coefficients of resistivity

Material α [(°C)−1]
Aluminum 0.00039
Carbon (graphite) −0.0005
Copper 0.00393
Iron 0.0050
Lead 0.0043
Silver 0.0038
Tungsten 0.0045
© 2016 Pearson Education Inc.
 Resistivity and temperature
• The resistivity of graphite (a semiconductor) decreases with
increasing temperature, since at higher temperatures, more
electrons “shake loose” from the atoms and become mobile.
• Measuring the resistivity of a small semiconductor crystal is a
sensitive measure of temperature; this is the principle of a
type of thermometer called a thermistor.

© 2016 Pearson Education Inc.

 Superconductivity
• Some materials show a
phenomenon called
superconductivity.
• As the temperature decreases,
the resistivity at first decreases
smoothly, like that of any metal.
• Below a certain critical
temperature Tc a phase
transition occurs and the resistivity suddenly drops to zero.
• Once a current has been established in a superconducting
ring, it continues indefinitely without the presence of any
driving field.
© 2016 Pearson Education Inc.
 Resistance and Ohm’s law
• The resistance of a conductor is
• The potential across a conductor is given by Ohm’s law:
V = IR.

© 2016 Pearson Education Inc.

 Resistors are color-coded for easy
identification
• This resistor has a resistance of 5.7 kΩ with a tolerance
of ±10%.

© 2016 Pearson Education Inc.

 Ohmic resistors
• For a resistor that obeys Ohm’s law, a graph of current as a
function of potential difference (voltage) is a straight line.

© 2016 Pearson Education Inc.

 Nonohmic resistors
• In devices that do not obey Ohm’s law, the relationship of
voltage to current may not be a direct proportion, and it may
be different for the two directions of current.

© 2016 Pearson Education Inc.

 Electromotive force and circuits
• Just as a water fountain requires a pump, an electric circuit
requires a source of electromotive force to sustain a steady
current.

© 2016 Pearson Education Inc.

 Electromotive force and circuits
• The influence that makes current flow from lower to higher
potential is called electromotive force (abbreviated emf and
pronounced “ee-em-eff”), and a circuit device that provides emf is
called a source of emf.
• Note that “electromotive force” is a poor term because emf is not a
force but an energy-per-unit-charge quantity, like potential.
• The SI unit of emf is the same as that for potential, the volt
(1 V = 1 J/C).
• A typical flashlight battery has an emf of 1.5 V; this means that the
battery does 1.5 J of work on every coulomb of charge that passes
through it.
• We’ll use the symbol (a script capital E) for emf.

© 2016 Pearson Education Inc.

 Internal resistance
• Real sources of emf actually
contain some internal
resistance r.
• The terminal voltage of the 12-V
battery shown at the right is less
than 12 V when it is connected to
the light bulb.

© 2016 Pearson Education Inc.

 Table 25.4 — Symbols for circuit diagrams

© 2016 Pearson Education Inc.

 Potential changes
• The figure shows how the
potential varies as we go
around a complete circuit.
• The potential rises when the
current goes through a
battery, and drops when it
goes through a resistor.
• Going all the way around the
loop brings the potential back
to where it started.

© 2016 Pearson Education Inc.

 Energy and power in electric circuits
• The box represents a circuit
element with potential
difference Vab = Va − Vb
between its terminals and
current I passing through it in
the direction from a toward b.
• If the potential at a is lower than at b, then there is a net
transfer of energy out of the circuit element.
• The time rate of energy transfer is power, denoted by P, so
we write:

© 2016 Pearson Education Inc.

 Power
• The upper rectangle
represents a source with emf
and internal resistance r,
connected by ideal wires to
an external circuit represented
by the lower box.
• Point a is at higher potential
than point b, so Va > Vb and
Vab is positive.
P = VabI

© 2016 Pearson Education Inc.

 Metallic conduction
• Electrons in a conductor are free to
move through the crystal, colliding
at intervals with the stationary
positive ions.
• The motion of the electrons is
analogous to the motion of a ball
rolling down an inclined plane and
bouncing off pegs in its path.

© 2016 Pearson Education Inc.