Fundamentals of Electricity, Magnetism, and Circuits Flashcards
What is the convectional current flow?
It’s the theoretical flow of electrons from the positive terminal to the negative terminal
How does current actually flow?
It flows from the negative terminal to the positive terminal because the electrons are negatively charged
What is a source?
A source is something that delivers electrical power
What is a load?
A load is something that absorbs electrical power
What do the arithmetic signs of + and - represent?
The direction of electrical current
What is the effective value of an ac voltage?
Effective = Peak value / Square root of 2
The effective value is sometimes also called the Root Mean Square value of the voltage
What does the effective value of an ac voltage measure?
It’s a measure of the heating effect compared to that of an equivalent dc voltage
How can we represent phasors?
We have two phasors, the voltage phasor E and the current phasor I. These can be drawn like 2D vectors where their size represents their relative magnitude and the angle between them represents the phase difference between them.
Rotating clockwise tells you the angle that the respective phasor leads the other one by
Why may we see a distortion in a voltage waveshape?
- Magnetic Saturation in the cores of transformers
- Switching action of thyristors
- IGBT’s in electronic drives (Insulated-Gate Bipolar Transistor)
What is a Harmonic?
Any voltage or current whose frequencies are integral multiples of f where f is the lowest frequency of a set of sine waves
What is a sine wave with the lowest possible frequency?
The Fundamental Frequency
What is a square wave composed of?
A fundamental wave and an infinite number of harmonics. The higher harmonics have smaller amplitudes so they are less important. However, the high frequency harmonics produce steep sides and sharp courners
How are harmonics created?
- Nonlinear loads such as electric arcs and saturated magnetic circuits
- Whenever voltages and currents are periodically switched, such as in power electronic circuits
What is Fundamental Power?
The useful power that causes a motor to rotate and an arc furnace to heat up
What is the Harmonic Power?
The harmonic voltage multiplied by the harmonic current
What usually happens to the harmonic power?
Dissipated into heat into the ac circuit as heat, so it doesn’t do useful work
What is the product of a harmonic current and fundamental voltage?
Always 0
What is the energy in an inductor?
W = 1/2 * L * I^2
- W = Energy stored in the coil
- L = Inductance of the coil
- I = Current
What is the energy in a capacitor?
W = 1/2 * C * E^2
- W = Energy stored in the capacitor
- C = Capacitance of the capacitor
- E = Voltage