Electricity Flashcards
What is Protons?
- positively charged particles in an atom
- together with neutrons construct nucleus in an atom
What is electricity?
The movement of charged particles called electrons
What is electrons?
- negatively charged particles in an atom
- rotates around nucleus
What is charge?
Charge is the energy of particles which are either positive or negative
What is current electricity?
- moving
- path electric current flows is called a current
Who discovered that electricity moves?
Benjamin Franklin
What is voltage?
- voltage is the force moving electrons
- how much energy the battery supplies to each coulomb of charge
What do you measure voltage with?
- The tool used to measure voltage is voltmeter
- voltmeter are measured in parallel circuits
What is current?
- flow of electrons throughout a circuit
- measures rate of flow electrons per second
What do you measure current with?
The tool used to measure current is an ammeter
What do you measure current in?
Measured in amps (A) amperes
What do you measure voltage in?
Volts (V)
Static electricity can be charged by:
- friction: rubbing, adds or removes electrons
- contact: neutral object touches charged object
What is voltage also known as?
Potential Difference
What is a circuit?
- pathway of a current
- path from one side of a power source to the other
- negative to positive
What is Static Electricity?
-electricity that is not moving
What is resistance?
Materials opposition to the flow of electric current.
How do you measure resistance in a series?
Rt= R1 + R2 + R3
How do you measure resistance in a Parallel circuit?
1/Rt= 1/R1 + 1/R2 + 1/R3
What is a series circuit?
- only one possible path
- removal of one globe effects others
- voltage is divided
- current is the same
What is parallel circuits?
- have two or more possible paths
- intensity of globe is the same
- one light removed doesn’t effect rest
- current is divided
- voltage is the same
What is a insulator?
- allow no or little electric current through
- high resistance
- gain charge
- strong hold on electrons
Example of insulators……..
- plastic
- wood
- rubber
- tungsten
Why is tungsten used in light bulb filaments.
- highest melting point (or else would be red or orange and couldn’t operate at high temperatures)
- lowest thermal expansion coefficient (or else length of filament would change and cause problems)
What is a conducter?
- electrons that are loosely bound to their atoms
- low resistance
- good conducters= almost zero resistance
Example of conductors……..
Metals
- silver
- gold
- copper
- steel
- lead
What is a coulomb of charge?
-is a measure of charged particles
-coulomb of charge= electrons in large bundles
IC=6.24x10-18 electrons
5amps=5 coulomb of charge per/s
What measures resistance?
Ohms
What is a diode?
- protects a circuit by only allowing electricity to flow in one direction
- and blocks flow in opposite direction
What is joules?
-measurement of electrical energy
What is LED? (Light emitting diode)
- when correctly connected, glow brightly
- does not work with reverse polarity (one-way orientation)
- offers resistance
What is a capacitor?
A device which stores electrical energy
What is LDR? (Light dependent resistor)
- useful in light and dark sensor circuits
- normal resistance of 1000000 but when illuminated with light resistance immediately drops dramatically
Why is copper used in electrical wiring?
- cheap
- ductile (easily bent without breaking)
What is components?
Small parts used to construct electronic circuits
What is a switch?
Stops and starts the flow of electrons
What is a transistor?
Has three leads and acts as a very fast switch
What is a battery
- power source
- converts stored chemical energy and electrical energy
- provides energy and voltage, moving electrons
- battery (plural)
- cell (singular)
What could be wrong with a circuit if it didn’t work
- battery was flat
- break in wire
- LED broken
- LED wired in reverse
The current in a wire depends on
Both resistance and voltage
