LESSON 3

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Basic Electricity

OBJECTIVES:

SON 1:
At the end of the lesson, students are expected to:

 Explain the fundamental concepts of electricity

 Know the difference between Conductors and
Insulators
 Understand voltage, resistance and current
 Calculate voltage, current, or resistance using
"Ohm’s Law‖.
Introduction to Electricity

Electricity is all around us. Powering technology like our cell phones, computers,
lights, soldering irons, and air conditioners. It's tough to escape it in our modern world. Even
when you try to escape electricity, it's still at work throughout nature, from the lightning in a
thunderstorm to the synapses inside our body.

Electricity is the flow of electrical power or charge. It is a secondary energy source

which means that we get it from the conversion of other sources of energy, like coal, natural
gas, oil, nuclear power and other natural sources, which are called primary sources. The
energy sources we use to make electricity can be renewable or non-renewable, but
electricity itself is neither renewable nor non-renewable.

Electricity is a basic part of nature and it is one of our most widely used forms of
energy. Many cities and towns were built alongside waterfalls (a primary source of
mechanical energy) that turned water wheels to perform work. Before electricity generation
began over 100 years ago, houses were lit with kerosene lamps, food was cooled in
iceboxes, and rooms were warmed by wood-burning or coal-burning stoves. Beginning with
Benjamin Franklin's experiment with a kite one stormy night in Philadelphia, the principles
of electricity gradually became understood. Thomas Edison helped change everyone's life -
- he perfected his invention -- the electric light bulb. Prior to 1879, direct current (DC)
electricity had been used in arc lights for outdoor lighting. In the late-1800s, Nikola Tesla
pioneered the generation, transmission, and use of alternating current (AC) electricity,
which can be transmitted over much greater distances than direct current. Tesla's
inventions used electricity to bring indoor lighting to our homes and to power industrial
machines.

Despite its great importance in our daily lives, most of us rarely stop to think what life
would be like without electricity. Yet like air and water, we tend to take electricity for
granted. Every day, we use electricity to do many jobs for us -- from lighting and
heating/cooling our homes, to powering our televisions and computers. Electricity is a
controllable and convenient form of energy used in the applications of heat, light and power.

Electricity is a movement of free electrons through

a medium that is produced by an energy source.
Static Electricity

Electricity has been moving in the world forever. Lightning is a form of electricity. It is
electrons moving from one cloud to another or jumping from a cloud to the ground. Have you
ever felt a shock when you touched an object after walking across a carpet? A stream of
electrons jumped to you from that object. This is called static electricity.

Static electricity exists when there is a build-up of opposite charges on objects

separated by an insulator. Static (as in "at rest") electricity exists until the two groups of
opposite charges can find a path between each other to balance the system out.

When the charges do find a means of equalizing, a static discharge occurs. The
attraction of the charges becomes so great that they can flow through even the best of
insulators (air, glass, plastic, rubber, etc.). Static discharges can be harmful depending on
what medium the charges travel through and to what surfaces the charges are transferring.
Charges equalizing through an air gap can result in a visible shock as the traveling electrons
collide with electrons in the air, which become excited and release energy in the form of
light.

Have you ever made your hair stand straight up by rubbing a balloon on it? If so, you
rubbed some electrons off the balloon. The electrons moved into your hair from the balloon.
They tried to get far away from each other by moving to the ends of your hair. They pushed
against each other and made your hair move—they repelled each other. Just as opposite
charges attract each other, like charges repel each other.

In this example, friction from rubbing different types of materials transfers electrons.
The object losing electrons becomes positively charged, while the object gaining electrons
becomes negatively charged. The two objects become attracted to each other until they can
find a way to equalize.

Working with electronics, we generally don't have to deal with static electricity. When
we do, we're usually trying to protect our sensitive electronic components from being
subjected to a static discharge. Preventative measures against static electricity include
wearing ESD (electrostatic discharge) wrist straps, or adding special components in circuits
to protect against very high spikes of charge.

Batteries Produces Electricity

A battery produces electricity using two

different metals in a chemical solution. A
chemical reaction between the metals and the
chemicals frees more electrons in one metal than
in the other. One end of the battery is attached to
one of the metals; the other end is attached to
the other metal. The end that frees more
electrons develops a positive charge and the
other end develops a negative charge. If a wire is
attached from one end of the battery to the other,
electrons flow through the wire to balance the
electrical charge. A load is a device that does work or performs a job. If a load––such as a
lightbulb––is placed along the wire, the electricity can do work as it flows through the wire. In
the picture above, electrons flow from the negative end of the battery through the wire to the
lightbulb. The electricity flows through the wire in the lightbulb and back to the battery.

Electricity Travels in Circuits

Electricity travels in closed loops, or circuits

(from the word circle). It must have a complete path
before the electrons can move. If a circuit is open, the
electrons cannot flow. When we flip on a light switch,
we close a circuit. The electricity flows from the
electric wire through the light and back into the wire.
When we flip the switch off, we open the circuit. No
electricity flows to the light. When we turn a light
switch on, electricity flows through a tiny wire in the bulb. The wire gets very hot. It makes
the gas in the bulb glow. When the bulb burns out, the tiny wire has broken. The path
through the bulb is gone. When we turn on the TV, electricity flows through wires inside the
set, producing pictures and sound. Sometimes electricity runs motors—in washers or mixers.
Electricity does a lot of work for us. We use it many times each day.

Conductors Vs. Insulators

In physics and any other electrical-related theories difference between conductors
and insulators plays a very vital role. Conductors are materials that allow electric current or
sometimes heat to pass through them. Hence becoming electrically conductive in nature.
Insulators are materials that do not allow heat or electricity to pass through them. Let us
have a detailed look at conductors and insulators below.

 Electrical Conductors
The conductor is defined as the material which allows the electric current or heat
to pass through it. The electrons in a conductor freely moved from atom to atom when
the potential difference is applied across them. The conductivity of the conductor
depends on the number of free electrons in the outermost shell of the orbit. The
conductivity of the material is directly proportional to the number of free electrons.
The best electrical conductor, under conditions of ordinary temperature and
pressure, is the metallic element silver. Silver is not always an ideal choice as a material,
however, because it is expensive and susceptible to tarnishing, and the oxide layer
known as tarnish is not conductive.
Similarly, rust, verdigris, and other oxide layers reduce conductivity even in the
strongest conductors. The most effective electrical conductors are:

 Silver  Steel
 Gold  Iron
 Copper  Seawater
 Aluminum  Concrete
 Mercury  Mercury
Other strong conductors include:
  Platinum  Graphite
 Brass  Dirty water
 Bronze  Lemon juice

 Electrical Insulators
Insulators are the materials or substances which resist or don't allow the current
to flow through them. In general, they are solid in nature. As they do not allow the flow of
heat. The property which makes insulators different from conductors is their resistivity.
Wood, cloth, glass, mica, and quartz are some good examples of insulators. Also,
insulators are protectors. They give protection against heat, sound, and electricity.
Furthermore, insulators don't have any free electrons. It is the main reason why they
don't conduct electricity.
Electric charges do not flow freely through insulators. This is an ideal quality in
many cases—strong insulators are often used to coat or provide a barrier between
conductors to keep electric currents under control. This can be seen in rubber-coated
wires and cables. The most effective electrical insulators are:
 Rubber  Diamond
 Glass  Dry wood
 Pure water  Dry cotton
 Oil  Plastic
 Air  Asphalt
Other strong insulators include:
 Fiberglass  Ceramics
 Dry paper  Quartz
 Porcelain
Ohm's Law

The first, and perhaps most important, the relationship between current, voltage, and
resistance is called Ohm’s Law, discovered by Georg Simon Ohm in 1827.

Ohm's law states that the current through a conductor is proportional to the voltage
across the conductor. This is true for many materials (including metals) provided the
temperature (and other physical factors) remain constant. The electrical components of
Ohm's Law are Voltage, Resistance, and Current.

 Current

An electric circuit is formed when a conductive path is created to allow

electric charge to continuously move. This continuous movement of electric
charge through the conductors of a circuit is called a current, and it is often
referred to in terms of ―flow,‖ just like the flow of a liquid through a hollow pipe.
Current is measured in Ampere.

 Voltage

The force motivating charge carriers to ―flow‖ in a circuit is called voltage.

Voltage is a specific measure of potential energy that is always relative between
two points. Voltage is measured in volts.

 Resistance

Current tends to move through the conductors with some degree of

friction, or opposition to motion. This opposition to motion is more properly called
resistance. The amount of current in a circuit depends on the amount of voltage
and the amount of resistance in the circuit to oppose current flow. Resistance is
measured in ohms.

Here are the standard units of measurement for electrical current, voltage, and
resistance:
 Each unit of measurement is named after a famous experimenter in electricity: The
amp after the Frenchman Andre M. Ampere, the volt after the Italian Alessandro Volta, and
the ohm after the German Georg Simon Ohm.
The mathematical symbol for each quantity is meaningful as well. The ―R‖ for
resistance and the ―V‖ for voltage are both self-explanatory, whereas ―I‖ for current seems a
bit weird. The ―I‖ is thought to have been meant to represent ―Intensity‖ (of charge flow), and
the other symbol for voltage, ―E,‖ stands for ―Electromotive force.‖

Ohm’s Law Equation

Ohm’s principal discovery was that the amount of electric current through a metal
conductor in a circuit is directly proportional to the voltage impressed across it, for any given
temperature. Ohm expressed his discovery in the form of a simple equation, describing how
voltage, current, and resistance interrelate:

Using the above formula, here are some problems that will help you use Ohm's Law
to solve the following question.

Problem 1. A 220V supply voltage is applied to a resistor of 100 Ω. Find the current which
flows through it.
Given data: V = 220v R = 100Ω I=?
Formula: I = V/R
I = 220 / 100
I = 2.2 amps
Result: The current flowing through the resistor is 2.2A.

Problem 2. A current of 0.5 flows across 10 Ω of resistance. Find the difference in potential
between its ends.
Given data: I = 0.5A R = 10Ω V=?
Formula: V=I*R
V = 0.5 * 10
V = 5 volts
Result: The potential difference between its ends is 5V.
Problem 3: A small light bulb is connected to a 6V battery and draws 2A of current. What is
the net resistance of the light?
Given data: V = 6V I = 2A R=?
Formula: R=V/I
R=6/2
R = 3 ohms
Result: The net resistance of the bulb is 3Ω

Problem 4: An electronic device has a resistance of 20 ohms and a current of 15 A. What is

the voltage across the device?
Given data: I = 15A R = 20Ω V=?
Formula: V=I*R
V = 15 * 20
V = 300 volts
Result: The voltage across the device is 300V.

Problem 5: A 3V potential difference is applied across a 6Ω resistor. What is the current that
flows into the resistor?
Given data: V = 3V R = 6Ω I=?
Formula: I=V/R
I=3/6
I = 0.5 amps
Result: The current flowing through the resistor is 0.5A.

Problem 6: In the circuit shown below, how much current does the ammeter show?

Solution: The lamp is an electronic component

with high resistance. In the figure, the voltage
across it is the same as battery V=20V. The
current passes through it relates to the resistance
and voltage drop using Ohm's law.

Given data: V = 20V R = 8Ω I=?

Formula: I=V/R
I = 20 / 8
I = 2.5 amps
Result: The current flowing through the resistor is 2.5A.
Supporting video link:

Ohm’s Law

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLQmjNbjc7g&t=34s

Conductor and Insulator

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PafSqL1riS4