Principles of Physics

Chapter 21
Current and Direct Current Circuits

• To understand current and how charges move in a conductor

• To understand resistivity and conductivity
• To calculate the resistance of a conductor
• To calculate energy and power in circuits

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 Electric Current
 Electric current is the rate of flow of charge through a surface
 Assume charges are moving perpendicular to a surface of area A
– If DQ is the amount of charge that passes through A in time Dt, the average current
is:

DQ
I avg =
Dt

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 Electric Current
 The instantaneous current, when Dt goes to zero, is:

DQ dQ
I  lim =
Dt →0 Dt dt
 The SI unit of current is the Ampere (A)

1A=1C/s

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 Electric Current
 The charges passing through the area could be positive or negative or both
– It is conventional to assign to the current the same direction as the flow of positive
charges.
– The direction of current flow is opposite the direction of the flow of electrons
 It is common to refer to any moving charge as a charge carrier

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 Electric Current
 Consider identical charged particles moving through a conductor of
cross-sectional area A
– n is the number of charge carriers per unit volume
– nA Δx is the total number of charge carriers
 The total charge is the number of carriers times the charge per carrier, q
ΔQ = (nA Δx)q

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 Electric Current
 The drift speed, vd, is the speed at which the carriers move
vd = Δx/Δt
– So we can write:

ΔQ = (nAvdΔt) q

– And the current is:

DQ
I avg = = nqvd A
Dt
– This equation relates a macroscopically measured average current to the
microscopic origin of the current:
⚫ the density of charge carriers n, the charge per carrier q, and the drift speed vd

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◦ Quick Quiz 21.1 Consider positive and negative charges moving horizontally through the four regions shown
in Figure. Rank the currents in these four regions, from highest lowest.

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 Electric Current
 The zig-zag black line represents the
motion of charge carrier in a conductor
– The net drift speed is small
– The sharp changes in direction are due to
collisions
– The net motion of electrons is opposite the
direction of the electric field

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 Electric Current
 When the potential difference is applied, an electric field is established in the conductor
– The electric field exerts a force on the electrons.
– The force accelerates the electrons and produces a current
 The motion of the electrons due to the electric force is superimposed on their random
motion to provide an average velocity whose magnitude is the drift speed

 The changes in the electric field that drives the free electrons travel through the
conductor with a speed near that of light
– This is why the effect of flipping a switch is effectively instantaneous
 Electrons do not have to travel from the light switch to the light bulb in order for the
light to operate
– The electrons are already in the light filament
– They respond to the electric field set up by the battery

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 Electric Current
 When electrons make collisions with metal atoms during their motion, they transfer
energy to the atoms
– This causes an increase in the vibrational energy of the atoms and a corresponding increase in the
temperature of the conductor

 This energy is transformed by work done within the system by the field on the electrons
to kinetic energy of electrons
– When the electrons strike the metal atoms, some of the kinetic energy is transferred to the atoms,
which adds to the internal energy of the system

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 Electric Current
 The current density J in the conductor is the current per unit area:

I
J = nqvd
A

– Units are amperes per square meter, A / m2

– The current density is in the direction of the positive charge carriers

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 Example 21.1 Drift Speed in a Copper Wire
 The 12-gauge copper wire in a typical residential building has a cross-
sectional area of 3.31 × 1026 m2. It carries a constant current of 10.0 A.
What is the drift speed of the electrons in the wire? Assume each copper
atom contributes one free electron to the current. The density of copper is
8.92 g/cm3.

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 21.2 Resistance and Ohm’s Law
 In a conductor, the voltage applied across the ends of the conductor is
proportional to the current through the conductor.
– The constant of proportionality is the resistance of the conductor:

DV
R
I
– SI units of resistance are ohms (Ω)
1Ω=1V/A

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 Resistance and Ohm’s Law
 An ohmic device:
 The resistance is constant over a wide range of voltages
– The relationship between current and voltage is linear
– The slope is related to the resistance

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 Resistance and Ohm’s Law
 Non-ohmic materials are those whose resistance changes with voltage or
current
– The current-voltage relationship is nonlinear
– A diode is a common example of a non-ohmic device

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◦ Quick Quiz 21.2 In Figure 21.6b, as the applied voltage increases, does the resistance of the diode (a) increase,
(b) decrease, or (c) remain the same?

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 Resistance and Ohm’s Law
 A resistor is a simple circuit element that provides a resistance in a circuit

 Restating the definition of resistance:

DV = IR
– the voltage across a resistor is the product of the resistance and the current in the
resistor

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 Resistance and Ohm’s Law
 Resistance of an ohmic conductor is given by:

R=r – r is called the resistivity of the material

A – Resistivity has SI units of ohm-meters (W . m)

 The resistance of a material depends on its geometry and its resistivity

– An ideal (perfect) conductor would have zero resistivity
– An ideal insulator would have infinite resistivity
– The inverse of the resistivity is the conductivity:

R=
A
• The conductivity is the reciprocal of the resistivity.
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 Resistance and Ohm’s Law
 Combining equations for resistance:

DV DV q DV
R= = → I = A → = A
A I Dt
 Comparing to the equation for energy conduction through a slab of
material:

(Th − Tc ) Q DT
P = kA → = kA
L Dt L
 Note the similarities in the two equations

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 Resistance and Ohm’s Law
 Fick’s law describes the rate of transfer of a chemical solute through a
solvent by the process of diffusion
– This transfer occurs because of a difference in concentration of the solute (mass of
solute per volume) between the two locations
 Fick’s law is as follows:
n DC
= DA
Dt L
– n/Dt is the flow rate of the solute in moles per second; A is the area through which
the solute moves; L is the length over which the concentration difference is DC
– D is a diffusion constant that describes the rate of diffusion of a solute through the
solvent
 It is similar to electrical or thermal conductivity
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 Resistance and Ohm’s Law
 Most electric circuits use resistors to control the current level in the various
parts of the circuit
 Two common types of resistors:
– composition resistor: containing carbon
– wire-wound resistor: consists of a coil of wire

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 Resistance and Ohm’s Law
 Resistors are normally color-coded to give their values in ohms:

 For example, the four colors on the resistor in the

figure are:
– yellow (= 4)
– violet (= 7)
– black (= 100)
– gold (= 5%)
 The resistance value is
47×100 Ω = 47 Ω
 tolerance value of 5%
= 2 Ω.

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 Resistance and Ohm’s Law
 Over a limited temperature range, the resistivity of a conductor varies
approximately linearly with the temperature

r = r0[1 + (T −T0)]

– ρ0 is the resistivity at some reference temperature

– T0 is usually taken to be 20C
–  is the temperature coefficient of resistivity
– SI units of  are oC−1

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 Resistance and Ohm’s Law
  can be expressed as:

1 Dr
=
r0 DT

 Because resistance is proportional to resistivity, we have:

R = R0[1 + (T −T0)]

– Precise temperature measurements are often made using this property

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◦ Quick Quiz 21.3 When does an incandescent lightbulb carry more current?
(a) immediately after it is turned on and the glow of the metal filament is increasing or (b) after
it has been on for a few milliseconds and the glow is steady?

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Resistivity and temperature
• Resistivity depends on temperature.
See Figure 25.6 at the left.
• Table 25.2 shows some temperature
coefficients of resistivity.

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Example 25.2 Electric field, potential difference, and resistance in a wire

r = 1.72 x 10-8 Ω •cm

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Example 25.3 Temperature dependence of resistance

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 21.3 Superconductors
 For metals, the resistivity is nearly proportional
to the temperature
– A nonlinear region always exists at very low
temperatures
– The resistivity usually reaches some finite value as the
temperature approaches absolute zero

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 21.3 Superconductors
 The residual resistivity near absolute zero is caused primarily by the
collisions of electrons with impurities and imperfections in the metal
 High temperature resistivity is predominantly characterized by collisions
between the electrons and the metal atoms
– This is the linear range on the graph

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 21.3 Superconductors

 Superconductors are metals and

compounds whose resistances go to
zero below a certain temperature, TC
– TC is called the critical temperature
 The graph is the same as a normal
metal above TC, but suddenly drops to
zero at TC

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 21.3 Superconductors
 The value of TC is sensitive to
– Chemical composition
– Pressure
– Crystalline structure

 Once a current is set up in a superconductor, it persists without any

applied potential difference (because R = 0)
– Steady currents have been observed to persist in superconducting loops for
several years with no apparent decay!

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 21.3 Superconductors
 An important application of superconductors is a superconducting magnet
– The magnitude of the magnetic field is about 10 times greater than a normal
electromagnet
 Superconducting magnets are currently used in medical magnetic
resonance imaging, or MRI, units, which produce high-quality images of
internal organs without the need for excessive exposure of patients to x-
rays or other harmful radiation

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 21.4 A Model for Electrical Conduction
 A classical model of electrical conduction in metals was proposed by Paul
Drude
– This structural model leads to Ohm’s law and shows that resistivity can be related
to the motion of electrons in metals

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 21.4 A Model for Electrical Conduction
The Drude model is as follows:
1. A description of the physical components of the system:

2. A description of where the components are located relative to one another and
how they interact:

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 21.4 A Model for Electrical Conduction
The Drude model is as follows:
3. A description of the time evolution of the system:

4. A description of the agreement between predictions of the model and actual

observations and, possibly, predictions of new effects that have not yet been observed:

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21.4 A Model for Electrical Conduction

 To test Drude’s model, consider the following:

– The force experienced by an electron in an electric field is:
F = qE
– From Newton’s Second Law, the acceleration is

a=
 F = qE
m me
– Applying a motion equation
qE
v f = vi + at = vi + t
me

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 21.4 A Model for Electrical Conduction

– Since the initial velocities are random, their average value is

zero:
qE
v f ,avg = v d = 
me
– Substituting:

 eE  ne 2 E
I = nevd A = ne    A = A
m
 e  m e

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 21.4 A Model for Electrical Conduction
– Rewriting:

DV DV
I= = A
  r
r 
 A
– The electric field is uniform in the conductor, so:
E E
I= A= A
r r
– Setting the two expressions for current equal:
ne2 E E m
I=  A = A → r = 2e
me r ne 
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 21.4 A Model for Electrical Conduction
 According to this structural model, our prediction is that resistivity does not depend on
the electric field or, equivalently, on the potential difference, but depends only on fixed
parameters associated with the material and the electron
– This feature is characteristic of a conductor obeying Ohm’s law

 The model shows that the resistivity can be calculated from a knowledge of the density
of the electrons, their charge and mass, and the average time interval between collisions
– This time interval is related to the average distance between collisions lavg (the mean free path) and the
average speed vavg through the expression:

ne2 E E m
I=  A = A → r = 2e = avg
me r ne  vavg

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 21.4 A Model for Electrical Conduction
 A quantum mechanical model is needed to explain the incorrect predictions of the
classical model developed so far
 The wave-like character of the electrons must be included
– The predictions of resistivity values then are in agreement with measured values

 The model is consistent with Ohm’s law.

– It does not correctly predict the values of resistivity or behavior of resistivity with temperature
 To account for the incorrect predictions of the classical model, we will develop it
further into a quantum mechanical model

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 21.4 A Model for Electrical Conduction
 Imagine that the electrons moving through the metal have wave-like properties
– If the array of atoms in a conductor is regularly spaced (that is, periodic), the wavelike character of
the electrons makes it possible for them to move freely through the conductor and a collision with an
atom is unlikely
 For an idealized conductor, no collisions would occur, the mean free path would be
infinite, and the resistivity would be zero

 Electrons are scattered only if the atomic arrangement is irregular (not periodic)
– For example, as a result of structural defects or impurities
 At low temperatures, the resistivity of metals is dominated by scattering caused by
collisions between the electrons and impurities

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 21.4 A Model for Electrical Conduction
 At high temperatures, the resistivity is dominated by scattering caused by
collisions between the electrons and the atoms of the conductor
– which are continuously displaced as a result of thermal agitation, destroying the
perfect periodicity
 The thermal motion of the atoms makes the structure irregular (compared
with an atomic array at rest)
– reducing the electron’s mean free path

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 21.5 Energy and Power in Electric Circuits
 Assume a circuit as shown

 As a charge moves from a to b, the

electric potential energy of the
system increases by QDV
– The chemical energy in the battery
must decrease by this same amount

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 21.5 Energy and Power in Electric Circuits
 As the charge moves through the resistor (c to d), the system loses this electric
potential energy during collisions of the electrons with the atoms of the resistor
 This energy is transformed into internal energy in the resistor
– Corresponding to increased vibrational motion of the atoms in the resistor
 The resistor is normally in contact with the air, so its increased temperature will result
in a transfer of energy by heat into the air
– The resistor also emits thermal radiation
 After some time interval, the resistor reaches a constant temperature
– The input of energy from the battery is balanced by the output of energy by heat and radiation

 Consider the rate the system loses electric potential energy:

dU d dQ
= (QDV ) = DV = I DV
dt dt dt
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 21.5 Energy and Power in Electric Circuits
 The power is the rate at which the energy is delivered to the resistor:
P = IDV
– This equation can be used to determine the power transferred from a voltage source
to any device carrying current I and having potential difference DV
– SI unit is the watt
 Alternate forms of the power equation are:

(DV )2
P=I R=2

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◦ Quick Quiz 21.4 For the two incandescent lightbulbs shown in Figure 21.11, rank the currents at points a through f,
from greatest to least.

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Example 21.2 Linking Electricity and Thermodynamics
 An immersion heater must increase the temperature of 1.50 kg of water
from 10.0 C to 50.0 C in 10.0 min while operating at 110 V.
 (A) What is the required resistance of the heater?

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Example 21.2 Linking Electricity and Thermodynamics
 (B) Estimate the cost of heating the water.

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