Fall 2021 ESC 201A

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Fall 2021 ESC 201A

Introduction to Electronics

L1.1

Charge, Current and Voltage

S. Sundar Kumar Iyer

Department of Electrical Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

Acknowledgement 2
I thank Prof. B. Mazhari for allowing me to use some of his slides and slide material
Fall 2021 ESC 201A

Charge
Charles-Augustin de Coulomb
Unit of electric charge: Coulomb (14 June 1736 – 23 August 1806)

1C=1Ax1s
Common symbols: q or Q
An electronic charge: - 1.6 x 10-19 C

Electron carries negative charge

Proton carries positive charge
Negative charge carriers:
• electrons, negative ions, …
Wikipedia

Positive charge carriers:

• positive ions, holes (absence of electrons), …
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Fall 2021 ESC 201A

Current
• The time rate of flow of electrical charge
• Unit: ampere (A)  which is coulomb per second (C/s)
• Ampere is one of the seven basic SI units
• Popular symbol is i or I André-Marie Ampère
1775-1836
•

commons.wikimedia.org

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Fall 2021 ESC 201A

More on Current
Current has a magnitude and a direction

I ~1.5 mA

Metal wire

~1016 electrons flow per second

Direction of current flow is opposite to direction of electron flow

Large number of electrons have to flow for appreciable current

Electrons flowing to form current is a small fraction of electrons in metal

Fall 2021 ESC 201A

DC and AC
Direct Current (DC) & Alternating Current (AC)
When current is constant with time, we say that we have direct current,
abbreviated as DC.
ib(t)
ia(t)
2 ib(t) = 2 cos (2πft + φ)
2 ia(t) = 2

t
t

2⋅cos(2πft) ~

On the other hand, a current that varies with time, reversing direction
periodically, is called alternating current, abbreviated as AC 6
Fall 2021 ESC 201A

Voltage
• Voltage difference causes current to flow
• Potential difference for a unit positive charge between two points
– Work done to move unit positive charge between two points
• Units of Voltage: Volt (V)
• Popular symbol: v or V

12V 12V
Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio
12V Anastasio Volta 1745-1827
0V 7
Light comes on Light does not come on

Fall 2021 ESC 201A

Voltage Is Relative
• In practice, it is ∆V that matters +

x ∆V

-
• In a circuit (system), we choose a reference
– Reference is called “ground”
– Rest of the voltages in the circuit are w.r.t. ground
V3

V2 V1

Reference 8
V= 0
Fall 2021 ESC 201A

Voltage Sources

Fall 2021 ESC 201A

DC and AC Voltage Sources

Typically value for car battery

V + − V − = 1 2V

Typically 220 V RMS, 50 Hz

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