Electricity Flashcards
What is electric current?
The rate of flow of electrical charge.
What is current measured in?
Amperes/amps (A).
How is current measured?
Using an ammeter.
What is electric charge measured in?
Coulombs (C).
Why is the current the same in all points in a loop?
It has no where else to go, as it is in a single, closed loop.
What is the resistance of a component?
A measure of how it resists the flow of charge.
What happens when there is a high resistance?
It is more difficult for the charge to flow.
The current is lower.
What is resistance measured in?
Ohms (Ω).
What is potential difference?
Shows the difference in electrical potential from point in the circuit to another.
What happens when there is a high potential difference?
The flow of charge through a component is bigger.
The current is bigger.
What is potential difference measured in?
Volts (V).
How is potential difference measured?
Using a voltmeter.
A non-linear potential difference-current graph may be the result of what? And what may fix this?
As the resistance in some resistors is not constant, it can change as the current changes, which may cause this.
This may be fixed by replacing the resistor with an ohmic resistor, where the resistance does change due to other factors.
What is an ohmic conductor?
A resistor in which the current is directly proportional to the potential difference at a constant temperature.
What might a resistor appear as on potential difference-current graph?
Y=X
What might the potential difference-current graph look like for a filament lamp? What might cause this?
‘elongated S’
As current through a filament lamp increases, as does the temperature, which causes the resistance to increase.
What might the potential difference-current graph look like for a diode? What might cause this?
The line travels along the X line before peaking off after the origin.
A diode has a very high resistance in the reverse reaction, which is shown with no voltage until after zero.
What happens to a thermistor as the temperature increases?
The resistance decreases.