Security Technology Department Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1
Fundamentals in electrical measurements
Lesson Objectives
After completing this lesson, you should be able to:
i. State the factors affecting the resistance of a resistor and perform resistance
calculation.
ii. Explain basic electrical units of measurements.
iii. Compute electrical parameters using Ohm’s law.

1.0 Electrical units of measurements.

1.1 Voltage (V)

A voltage source is a source of potential energy. It is also called electromotive force (or
EMF). This energy can be obtained from a battery, electronic power supply, solar cell or
generator.

The units of voltage is Volts (V).

1.2 Current (I)

If a voltage is placed across the conductive or semi-conductive materials, one end

becomes positive and the other negative, as indicated in Fig. 1. This results in a net
movement of the free electrons from the negative end of the material to the positive
end as shown in Fig.1.

Fig. 1: Electrons flow from negative to positive when a voltage

is applied across a conductive or semi-conductive
material.

The units of current is Ampere (A).

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 Security Technology Department Chapter 1

1.3 Resistance

The property of a material that restricts the flow of electrons is called resistance, R.

Fig.2 Resistance/resistor schematic symbol

Ohm's Law
The Ohm's Law state that the ratio of potential difference (V) between any two points
on a load to the current (I) flowing between them is constant, provided the
temperature of the load does not change.

V
The formulae to calculate resistance, R=
I

Note: R is the resistance of the load between the two points considered.

The unit of resistance, R is ohms (Ω).

Example 1

How many amperes of currents are flowing in the circuit ?

25

I
100V

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 Security Technology Department Chapter 1

Example 2
A current of 5A passes through a circuit having a resistance of 10. Find the voltage
across the circuit.

Example 3
An electric circuit is supplied by 12V battery. Calculate the resistance when the current
draws out from the battery is 3 amperes.

1.4 Power in an Electric Circuit

When current flows through resistance, the collisions of the electrons give off heat,
resulting in a loss of energy as indicated in Fig. 4.

V
R

Fig. 3

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 Security Technology Department Chapter 1

These is always a certain amount of power in an electric circuit, and it depends on the
amount of resistance and on the amount of current, expressed as follows :

P = I2 R

= IV

V2
=
R

The units of power is Watts (W).

Example 4 Calculate the power in each of the three circuit of Fig. 5.

I 2A 2A

5V 10V V
10 R 50

Fig. 4

Example 6
Calculate the supply voltage, supply current and resistance in each of the circuit of Fig 6.
I 2A

50V V 60W
1.5
W

Fig. 5

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 Security Technology Department Chapter 1

2.0 FACTORS AFFECTING THE RESISTANCE OF RESISTORS

At constant temperature, the resistance of a conductor is determined by 3 factors,
namely :
a) length (  ) of conductor
b) cross-sectional area ( A ) of the conductor
c) material used.

The conductor’s resistance is expressed as:


R  ( )
A

Where  is known as its specific resistance or resistivity.

2.1 Resistivity

The specific resistance or resisitivity of a material may be defined as the resistance

between opposite faces of an unit cube of that material at a given temperature.

RA



If the unit of the length and area is in metre(m), then the unit of  is ohm-metre(-m). If
they are in cm, then the unit of  is ohm-cm(-cm).

Example 1

Calculate the length of a 1.5 mm diameter copper wire, having a resistance of 0.3 ohm
and that the resistivity of copper is 0.017 µΩ-m.
R = 0.3 
 = 0.017 x 10-6 -m

A = (π d 2) / 4
= ( 3.142 x 1.5 x 10-3 x 1.5 x 10-3 ) / 4
= 1.77 x 10-6 m 2
R =   /A
 = RA/ 
= (0.3 x 1.77 x 10-6 ) / 0. 017 x10-6
= 31.23 m

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 Security Technology Department Chapter 1

Example 2
Calculate the resistance of 100m length of copper wire having a cross-sectional area of
0.1 mm2 if its resistivity is 50 x 10-8 ohm-cm. (Answer: 5  )

Tutorial 1

1. Determine the current in each case.

(a) V = 5V, R = 1; (b) V = 15V, R = 10;
(c) V = 50V, R = 100; (d) V = 30V, R = 15k;
(e) V = 250V, R = 5M; (f) V = 66kV, R = 10M;
(g) V = 5.5V, R = 10k; (h) V = 1kV, R = 2k.

2. Calculate the voltage for each value of I and R.

(a) I = 2A, R = 18; (b) I= 0.6A, R= 47;
(c) I = 0.1A, R = 500; (d) I= 1mA, R= 10;
(e) I = 250A, R = 1k; (f) I= 500mA, R= 1.5M;
(g) I = 75A, R = 50; (h) I= 850A, R= 10M.

3. Calculate the resistance for each value of V and I.

(a) V = 90V, I = 45A; (b) V = 150V, I = 0.5A;
(c) V = 10kV, I = 5A; (d) V = 500V, I = 250mA;
(e) V = 50V, I = 500A; (f) V = 1kV, I = 1mA;

4. Calculate the power handled by a 10k resistor carrying 100 A.

5. If a resistor is to carry 2A of current and handle 100W of power, what is its resistance?

6. If the resistance of 80 m of a certain wire is 32 , what would be the resistance of 250

m of the same material and cross-sectional area. (100  )

7. What is the resistance of a copper bus bar 9.15 m long and 7.62 cm by 1.27 cm in cross-
section? Specific resistance of copper is 1.78 microhm-cm. ( 0.000168  )

8. Find the length of a piece of nichrome wire 0.102 cm in diameter which has a resistance
of 25. Specific resistance of nichrome is 1.09 microhm-cm.

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