Confirming Pages

18.4

Figure 18.13 (a) A lightbulb

connected to a battery by conducting wires. (b) A circuit diagram for the same circuit. The
emf and the internal resistance
of the battery are enclosed by a
dashed line as a reminder that in
reality the two are not separate;
we cant make a connection to
the wire between the two!

I
+

= 1.5 V

r
+

1.5 V battery

Battery terminals

(a)

653

RESISTANCE AND RESISTIVITY

(b)

When the current through a source of emf is zero, the terminal voltagethe potential difference between its terminalsis equal to the emf. When the source supplies current to a load (a lightbulb, a toaster, or any other device that uses electric energy), its
terminal voltage is less than the emf; there is a voltage drop due to the internal resistance of the source. If the current is I and the internal resistance is r, then the voltage
drop across the internal resistance is Ir and the terminal voltage is
V = Ir

(18-10)

When the current is small enough, the voltage drop Ir due to the internal resistance is
negligible compared with ; then we can treat the emf as ideal (V ). A flashlight that
is left on for a long time gradually dims because, as the chemicals in a battery are
depleted, the internal resistance increases. As the internal resistance increases, the terminal voltage V = Ir decreases; thus, the voltage across the lightbulb decreases and
the light gets dimmer.

In a circuit diagram, the symbol

represents a resistor or
any other device in a circuit that dissipates electric energy.
A straight line represents a
conducting wire with negligible
resistance. (If a wires resistance is
appreciable, then we draw it as a
resistor.)

Conceptual Example 18.5

Starting a Car Using Flashlight Batteries
Why wont Grahams scheme work?

Discuss the merits of Grahams scheme to start

his car using eight D-cell flashlight batteries,
each of which provides an emf of 1.50 V and has an internal resistance of 0.10 . (A current of several hundred
amps is required to turn the starter motor in a car, while the
current through the bulb in a flashlight is typically less
than 1 A.)
Strategy We consider not only the values of the emfs,
but also whether the batteries can supply the required
current.
Solution and Discussion Connecting eight 1.5-V batteries as in a flashlightwith the positive terminal of one connected to the negative terminal of the nextdoes provide an
emf of 12 V. Each battery does 1.5 J of work per coulomb of
charge; if the charge must pass through all eight batteries in
turn, the total work done is 12 J per coulomb of charge.
When the batteries are used to power a device that draws
a small current (because the resistance of the load R is large
compared with the internal resistance r of each battery), the
terminal voltage of each battery is nearly 1.5 V and the

gia04535_ch18_640-692.indd 653

terminal voltage of the combination is nearly 12 V. For

instance, in a flashlight that draws 0.50 A of current, the terminal voltage of a D-cell is
V = Ir = 1.50 V 0.50 A 0.10 = 1.45 V
However, the current required to start the car is large. As
the current increases, the terminal voltage decreases. We can
estimate the maximum current that a battery can supply by
setting its terminal voltage to zero (the smallest possible
value):
V = I max r = 0
I max = /r = (1.5 V)/(0.10 ) = 15 A
(This estimate is optimistic since the batterys chemical
energy would be rapidly depleted and the internal resistance
would increase dramatically.) The flashlight batteries cannot
supply a current large enough to start the car.

Practice Problem 18.5

Battery in a Clock

Terminal Voltage of a

The current supplied by an alkaline D-cell (1.500 V emf,

0.100 internal resistance) in a clock is 50.0 mA. What is
the terminal voltage of the battery?

12/4/08 11:37:36 PM