Electricity Flashcards
What are the two different types of circuit?
Electric circuits can be series or parallel.
What does an ammeter measure?
An ammeter measures electric current, in amps, by measuring how much charge is flowing in the circuit.
What does a voltmeter measure?
A voltmeter measures, in volts, the difference in electrical energy between two points of a circuit.
How does static electricity occur?
Your jumper and shirt get electrically charged as they rub together, and then negative electric charges jump from one to the other. This makes sparks that crackle - you can even see them in a dark room.
When electric charges move in a wire, we say what?
that an electric current flows in the wire. It’s like the way a current of water flows in a river.
For an electric current to flow, what do we need?
something to make the electricity flow, such as a battery or power pack
a complete path for the current to flow in. This is called an electric circuit.
An electric current will not flow if we do not have what?
a power source (a cell, battery or power pack). It also won’t flow if the circuit is not complete. One end of the power source must be joined to the other end by the wires and components of the circuit.
what is the simplest complete circuit?
it is a piece of wire from one end of a battery to the other. An electric current can flow in the wire from one end of the battery to the other, but nothing useful happens. The wire just gets hot and the battery goes flat.
To do something useful with the electric current, we need to do what?
we need to put an electrical component into the circuit, such as a lamp or motor, that can use the current to make something happen.
