BEJ10303 ELECTRIC CIRCUIT I
DR. NUR ANIDA BINTI JUMADI
Department of Electronic Engineering
FAKULTI KEJURUTERAAN ELEKTRIK DAN ELEKTRONIK
Introduction to Electric Circuits
An electrical circuit is an interconnection
of electrical elements
Functions:
To transfer energy from one point to
another
Basic concepts:
Charge
Current
Voltage
Power
Circuit elements
Energy
FIGURE 1 : Basic electrical circuit
FIGURE 2: Electric circuit of a radio receiver
Quantities and SI Units
Quantities and SI Units:
- The International System of Units (SI) will be
used throughout this course.
- One great advantage of the SI unit is that it
uses prefixes based on the power of 10 to
relate larger and smaller units to the basic unit
(Table 3).
- For example: the following are expressions of
the same distance in meter
The six basic SI units
Table 1: The six basic SI Units
QUANTITY BASIC UNIT SYMBOL
Length Meter m
Mass Kilogram kg
Time Second s
Electric current Ampere A
Thermodynamic Kelvin K
temperature
Luminous intensity Candela cd
Table2: Electrical quantity, symbol and
unit
Quantity Symbol Unit Formula and Unit
Charge Q Coulomb (C) Current x time ; As
Current I Ampere (A) Charge / time ; C/s
Energy W Joule (J) Power x time ; Ws
Power P Watt (W) Energy/ time ; J/s
Voltage V Volt (V) Energy/charge ; J/C
Resistance R Ohm () Voltage/Current; V/A
Conductance G Siemens (S) Current/Voltage; A/V
Impedance Z Ohm () Voltage/Current; V/A
Inductor L Henry (H) Weber / Current; Wb/A
Capacitor C Farad (F) Charge/Voltage; C/V
Frequency F Hertz (Hz) 1/time(sec); 1/s
Reactance X Ohm () Voltage/Current; V/A
Prefix in the SI
Table 3: Prefixes and symbols
MULTIPLIER PREFIXES SYMBOL
10^12 tera T
10^09 giga G
10^06 mega M
10^03 kilo k
10^-03 mili m
10^-06 micro μ
10^-09 nano n
10^-12 pico p
Standard prefixes
Charge and Coulomb Law
All things are made of indivisible particles called
atom.
Charge and Current
Charge (Q or q):
- Is an electrical property of the atomic
particles of which matter consist,
measured in Coulomb (C).
- The charge of an electron (negative
charge) and that of a proton (positive
charge) are equal in magnitude
Cont…
Each atom consists of electrons, protons and
neutrons.
- 1 electron charge,e= -1.602 x 10-19C
- 1 proton charge,e= 1.602 x 10-19C
- - -
+ - - - -
- - - -
FIGURE 1.3: Electrons flow
unlike charges attract AND like charges repel
Coulomb Law
Electric Current
- -
- -
Battery
FIGURE 4: Electric current due to flow of electronic charge in a
conductor
Explanation of FIGURE 4
When a conducting wire (consisting of several
atoms) is connected to a battery (a source of
electromotive force).
The charges are compelled to move; positive
charges move in one direction while negative
charges move in the opposite direction.
This motion of charges creates electric
current. It is conventional to take the current
flow as the movement of positive charges,
that is, opposite to the flow of negative
charges.
Electric current
Electric current (I):
- Electric current is the time rate of
change of charge, measured in amperes
(A).
- 1 Ampere = 1 coulomb/second (C/s)
Cont..
• The direction of current flow
Positive ions Negative ions
Cont…
Mathematically:
The relationship between current i,
charge q, and time t, is
dq …………………(1)
i
dt
where current is measured in amperes (A),
and 1 ampere = 1 coulomb/second
Cont…
The charge transferred between time to
and t is obtained by integrating both
sides of Eq. (1). We obtain,
t
q idt …………………(2)
to
Example 1.3
1. Given:-
(a) i(t) = (3t2 - t) A. Calculate charge,q
from t=1 to t=2 s.
Answer:
q = ∫ idt = ∫ (3t2 - t) dt
= [t3 - t2/2] from 1 to 2 sec
= (8-2) – (1- 1/2) = 5.5 C
Currents
FIGURE 5: Two common types of current:
(a) direct current (dc), (b) alternating current (ac).
Cont…
A direct current (dc) is a current that remains
constant and does not change with time.
By convention the symbol I is used to represent
such a constant current.
An alternating current (ac) is a current that
varies sinusoidally with time.
A time-varying current is represented by the
symbol i. A common form of time-varying current
is the sinusoidal current or alternating current
(ac).
Conventional Current Flow
Cont…
• Once we define that the current as the
movement of charge the direction of
current flow is conventionally taken as the
direction of positive charge movement.
• A negative current of -5A flowing in one
direction is the same as a current of +5A
flowing in the opposite direction.
Example
2. How much charge (Q) is represented by 4,600 electrons?
Answer:
Each electron has -1.602 x 10-19C.
Hence 4,600 electrons will have
-1.602 x 10-19 C/electron x 4,600 electrons
= -7.369 x 10-16 C
Example
A conductor has a constant current of 5 A.
How many electrons pass a fixed point on
the conductor in one minute?
Solution
• Total no. of charges pass in 1 min is given by :
5 A = (5 C/s)(60 s/min) = 300 C/min
• Total no. of electrons pass in 1 min is given
300 C/min
-19
1.87 x10 electrons/min
21
1.602 x10 C/electron
Voltage, Energy and Power
• In circuit theory, charge separation creates an
electrical force called voltage, while charge
movement creates electrical current.
• Energy will build up whenever positive and
negative charges are separated apart.
• Voltage is the energy per unit charge, as a result
of charge separation.
W
V
Q
Cont..
The voltage vab between two points a and b in an electric
circuit is the energy (or work) needed to move a unit
charge from a to b; mathematically,
dw
v ab …………………(3)
dq
where w is energy in joules (J) and q is charge in
coulombs (C). The voltage Vab or simply v is
measured in volts (V), From Eq. (3).
It is evident that,
1 volt = 1 joule/coulomb = 1 newton meter/coulomb
Voltage
Voltage (V):
Voltage (or potential difference) is the
energy required to move a unit charge
through an element, measured in volts
(V).
Cont…
FIGURE 6: Polarity of voltage Vab
Cont…
FIGURE 7: Two equivalent
representations of the same voltage Vab:
(a)point a is 9 V above point b,
(b)point b is -9 V above point a.
Example
If 50J of energy are available for every 10C of
charge, what is the voltage?
V= W/Q
=50J/10C
=5V
Energy (W)
• Energy is the capacity to do work,
measured in joules (J).
• Also defined as the rate at which power is
used in a certain length of time.
• The electric energy used by consumers is
measured in watt-hour (Wh) or kilowatt-
hour (kWh) where
1 Wh = 3600 J
• The relationship between energy
and power is given as:
W = P x t (J)
3600J = 3600 Ws
1 (J) = 1 (Ws)
Power (P)
Power:
- Power is the rate at which energy is used,
measured in watts (W).
– In other words, power (P), is a certain amount
of energy (W) used in a certain length of time
(t), expressed as follows:
P = W/t =(W/Q) x (Q/t) = VI (Watt)
or for time-varying power,
dw
p
…………………(4)
dt
If the power has a +sign, power is being
absorbed by the element.
If the power has a –negative sign, power is
being supplied by the element.
where p is power in watts (W), w is energy in
joules (J), and t is time in seconds (s).
or
p iv …………………(5)
Passive sign convention
Is satisfied when the current enters through the positive
terminal of an element and p=+vi.
If the current enters through the negative terminal, p=-vi.
+Power absorbed=-power supplied
Example
What is power in watts for an amount of
energy equal to 100J used in 5 s?
Solution:
P= W/t
= 100J/5s
= 20W
Cont…
Power can be delivered or absorbed as defined
by the polarity of the voltage and the direction of
the current.
Power delivered or supplied
- + by voltage source
Power absorbed by resistor
+ -
V
Homework [1]
1. An electrical element draws the current
i(t)=10cos 4t A at a voltage v(t) = 120 cos
4t V. Find the energy absorbed by the
element in 2 s. [50.8 Joules]
2. The current of a device is i(t) = 3e-2t A and
the voltage is v(t) = 5 di/dt V . Find the
charge delivered between t = 0 and t =
2s. Calculate the power absorbed.
Example
1. A 12V battery is connected to an electric
circuit. Determine the power supplied by
the battery if 10mA current flows through
the circuit.
2. A 4V dc voltage across an electric
element used 30J energy within 5
minutes. Find the current passing
through the element.
Solution
1. P = V I = (12) (10 x 10-3) = 0.12W
2. P = W / t = 30 / (5 x 60) = 0.1 W
I = P / V = 0.1W / 4V = 0.025A = 25mA
Circuit Elements
An element is the basic building block of circuit.
An electric circuit is simply an interconnection of
the elements.
Circuit analysis is the process of determining
voltages across (or the currents through) the
elements of the circuit.
There are two types of elements found in electric
circuits: passive elements and active elements.
Cont…
An active element is capable of generating
energy while a passive element is not.
Examples of passive elements are resistors,
capacitors, inductors and diodes.
Typical active elements include generators,
batteries, and operational amplifiers.
The most important active elements are voltage
or current sources that generally deliver power
to the circuit connected to them.
There are two kinds of sources: independent
and dependent sources.
Independent Source
An ideal independent source is an active element that
provides a specified voltage or current that is completely
independent of other circuit variables.
FIGURE 7: Symbols for independent voltage sources:
(a)used for constant or time-varying voltage,
(b)used for constant voltage (dc).
Cont…
FIGURE 8: Symbol for independent current source.
A circle is used to represent an
independent source
V I
Dependent Source
An ideal dependent (or controlled) source is an active
element in which the source quantity is controlled by
another voltage or current.
Dependent sources are usually designated by diamond-
shaped symbols.
Since the control of the dependent source is achieved by
a voltage or current of some other element in the circuit,
and the source can be voltage or current, it follows that
there are four possible types of dependent source
namely:
1. A voltage-controlled voltage source (VCVS).
2. A current-controlled voltage source (CCVS).
3. A voltage-controlled current source (VCCS).
4. A current-controlled current source (CCCS).
Dependent Source (cont…)
FIGURE 9: Symbols for:
(a) dependent voltage source
(b) dependent current source.
A diamond is used to represent a
dependent source.
Is= Ix Vs= Vx
Example
Voltage controlled voltage source (VCVS)
vx Vs= vx
The parameter is a ratio of two voltages and
therefore is dimensionless.
Example
Voltage controlled current source (VCCS)
Is=gm
vx
vx
Example
Current controlled voltage source (CCVS)
Ix
V = m Ix
Example
Current controlled current source (CCCS)
ix
Is = ix
Homework [2]
Calculate the power absorbed by each
component.
6V
I
6A
+ 16V P2
0.4I
P1
10A
22V
P3 P4
-
Solution Homework [2]
Why does a short circuit
produce fire?
• Because a short allows/causes very large
current flow, which "overloads" the wire
[conductor].
• When a conductor [wire] carries
much more current than is safely
capable, then the conductor heats up,
and can cause enough heat to ignite the
insulation and adjacent combustible
materials on fire.
