Chapter 11:

Electrical
Circuits
 Chapter Overview:

11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4

Ohm’s Series Parallel Electrical
Law Circuits Circuits Power
 11.1 Ohm’s Law
Essential Questions:
1. How do we define Ohm’s Law?
2. Can we describe how current is related to charge and
time?
3. How do we calculate current being affected by
resistance?
Battery Circuit!
https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/ohms-law
Battery Circuit!
When battery terminals are connected by a
conducting wire, an electric current (charges) will
flow.
Electrons will move from the low potential terminal
of the battery (-) through the wire and enter the high
potential terminal of the battery (+).
Electric Current
The rate at which electric charge moves.
Large current for starting a truck moves a large amount
very quickly.
Small current for a calculator moves a small amount of
charge slowly.
Electric Current
The electric current, I, is defined as:

Where 𝝙Q is the amount of charge that flows past a

given area and 𝝙t is the time it takes for the charge to
move past the area.
*SI unit is ampere (A)
*One ampere is one coulomb per second:
Assume each particle q carries a
charge q = 1nC. If these charges
move past the area A in a time
𝝙t = 1 ns. What’s the current?
 Activity: Vegetable Lab!
Concept: Since particles confined in a wire can only
occupy a certain amount, pushing more particles into one end
of the wire will force the same number of particles out of the
opposite end. This creates a current of particles.
 Activity: Vegetable Lab!

Directions:
1. Fill the straw with peas until a different one is able to
come out of the other end.

2. For 30 seconds, count the number of peas you could push

through the straw.

3. Divide the number of peas you were able to push it over

30 seconds.
 Discussion Questions:
1. What do we think each part of this experiment represents? The
straw? The peas?

2. What does the number that we calculated represent? How do you

know?

3. What do you think would have changed if we made the peas smaller?
The straw bigger?
Direct Current vs Alternating Current
★ Direct Current or DC current is when the electric charge flows only in one direction.
○ Some examples of items that have sources of direct current are
computers, cell phones, flashlights, and cars.
★ Alternating current or AC is when the current direction alternates back and forth.
○ Hair dryers, fans, vacuum cleaners, and power tools use AC current.

Another way to produce DC current is by using a transformer, which converts

AC potential to DC potential. What do you think is a common example of one?

 Example Problem:
A lightning strike can transfer as many as 1020 electrons from a cloud to the ground. If
the strike lasts 2ms, what is the average electric current in the lightning?
*Hint: 𝝙Q = ne where e = -1.6 x 10-19 C*
 Example Problem #2:
How long would it take a 10mA current to charge a capacitor with 5.0 mC?
 Resistance and Ohm’s Law
Resistance is a description of how much wire or other electrical component opposes the flow of charge
through it.

German physicist, Georg Simon Ohm found experimentally that current through a conductor is proportional to
the voltage drop across a current carrying conductor.

I ∝V
The constant of proportionality is the resistance R of the material, which leads to

V = IR
This relationship is called Ohm’s Law. It can be viewed as a cause and effect relationship with voltage being
the cause and the current being the effect.

The units of resistance are volts per ampere, or V/A. We call this an ohm

1 Ω = 1 V/A.
 Ohm’s Law
Ohm's Law - PhET
 11.2 Series Circuits
Essential Questions:
1. What are circuit elements? How do we distinguish
them?
2. Can we calculate the resistance of resistors in series?
3. How do we apply Ohm’s law to resistors in series?
 Electrical Circuits are
complete closed pathways
through which electric
current flows.
 Electrical Circuits
The electrical circuit guides electric charge from one point to the next, running the charge through various
devices along the way to extract work or information.

The photo on the left shows a chip that contains complicated circuitry. The pathways that guide the current in
these devices are made my ultraprecise treatments of silicon or other semiconductors.

Large power systems like the ones of the right, contain electrical circuits whose features are on the scale of
meters. These electrical circutries are required for high-power electric power transmission.
 Electrical Circuits
To represent an electric circuit, we draw circuit diagrams, We use lines and symbols to represent the
elements in the circuit.

We will focus on four main symbols: the wire, the battery or voltage source, resistors, and the ground.

The zigzag element labeled R is a resistor, which is a circuit element that

provides a known resistance. The red element in the circuit is a battery, with its

positive and negative terminals included. Finally, the element labeled ground

Indicates that the circuit is connected to Earth.

 Battery-Resistor Circuit
https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/circuit-construction-kit-dc/teaching-resources
 Electrical Circuits
A switch is a device that opens and closes a circuit, like a light switch.

With the switch open, no current passes through the circuit. With the

switch closed, it becomes part of the wire so the current passes through.

A capacitor , C, is charged by the battery causing the voltage across

the capacitor to increase.

If we open the switch, the capacitor holds the voltage between its plates

because the charges have nowhere to go. The current will eventually

stop flowing because the capacitor will have become completely charged.

The circuit is now in steady state which means that its characteristics

do not change over time.

 Build-A-Circuit Lab
https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/circuit-construction-kit-dc/teaching-resources
 Resistors in Series and Equivalent Resistance
Components connected in series are connected one after the other in the same branch of a circuit.

An equivalent resistor is a resistor that has the same

resistance as the combined resistance of a set of other

Resistors.

Using Ohm’s law we find:

Requiv = R1 + R2 + … + RN .

Vbattery = IRequiv
 Resistors in Series and Equivalent Resistance
Example: In the left circuit, suppose the voltage rating of the battery is 12 V, and the resistances are

R1 = 1.0Ω, R2 = 6.0Ω , and R3 = 13Ω . (a) What is the equivalent resistance? (b) What is the current through the
circuit?
 Resistors in Series and Equivalent Resistance
Example: The circuit shown in the figure below contains three resistors of known value and a third element
whose resistance R3 is unknown. Given that the equivalent resistance for the entire circuit is 150Ω, what is the
resistance R3?
 11.3 Parallel Circuits
Essential Questions:
1. How do we interpret circuit diagrams with parallel
resistors?
2. Can we calculate the equivalent resistance of
resistors in series?
 Resistors in Parallel
If we combine resistors by connecting them next to each other, then the resistors are said to be connected in
parallel. Resistors are in parallel when both ends of each resistor are connected directly together.

The tops of the resistors are all connected to the same wire, so the voltage at the top of each resistor is the
same. This means that the voltage drop across each resistor is the same.

Although the voltage drop across each resistor is the same, the current running through each resistor isn’t.

Because the current has more paths to go through, the overall resistance will decrease. The equivalent
resistance must be less than the smallest resistance of the parallel resistors.
 Finding Equivalent Resistance
We apply Ohm’s law to each resistor.

V= I1R1, V= I2R2, V= I3R3 or I1 = V/R1 , I2 = V/R2 , I3 = V/R3

We also know from the conservation of charge that the three currents must add up to give the current that
goes through the battery.

I = I 1 + I2 + I 3

Inserting the expressions for I into this equation gives

I = V/R1 + V/R2 + V/R3 = V ( 1/R1 + 1/R2 + 1/R3)

Or V = I (1/(1/R1 + 1/R2 + 1/R3)) V= IRequiv

The equivalent resistance of N resistors connected in parallel is

Requiv = 1 / (1/R1 + 1/R2 + … + 1/RN)

 Parallel Resistors
Example: The three circuits are equivalent. If the voltage rating of the battery is Vbattery = 3V, what is the
equivalent resistance of the circuit and what current runs through the circuit?