CVE

Electrical Science

Lesson 7: Electromagnetism
V. Nundwe, Staff Associate in Electronics & Electrical Engineering
Intended Learning Outcome
• By the end of this lesson, the student should develop a good
understanding of the concepts of electromagnetism

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Outline
• Introduction • Summary
• Next lesson

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1. Magnets and Magnetic field
Consider a permanent magnet - a
piece of ferromagnetic material
(such as iron, nickel or cobalt)
which has properties of attracting
other pieces of these materials.
The magnetic force produced by a
magnet can be detected in the
area around a magnet and is
called the magnetic field

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2. Magnetic field due to an electric current
• Hans Christian Oersted discovered
a magnetic field produced by an
electric current passing through the
wire
• A wire carrying an electric current
was placed above a magnetic
needle and in line with the normal
direction of the latter
• The needle was deflected
clockwise or anticlockwise,
depending upon the direction of the
current

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 3. Direction of Magnetic field
A. Convention for showing the
direction of current flow in a conductor
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B. Right-hand screw rule C. Magnetic flux due to
current in a straight conductor
An alternative method is
known as the Right-hand
grip rule
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4. Capacitance
It is the property of a capacitor to store an electric charge
when its plates are at different potentials

Unit of capacitance is the Farad

Farad- The capacitance between the plates of which there
appears a potential difference of 1 volt when it is charged
by 1 coulomb of electricity.

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5. Capacitor
symbols
6. Calculations on Capacitance-Example 1
1. A direct current of 4 A flows into a previously
uncharged 20 μF capacitor for 3 ms. Determine the
p.d. between the plates.
2. A 5 μF capacitor is charged so that the p.d.
between its plates is 800 V. Calculate how long the
capacitor can provide an average discharge current
of 2 mA
.
7. Parallel Plate capacitor

where ε0 = 8.85×10−12 F/m

(constant)
εr = relative permittivity
A = area of one of the plates in m2
and
d = thickness of dielectric in m.

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8. Capacitance of Multi-plate capacitor
The capacitance can be
increased by interleaving
several plates.
• In the figure, 7 plates are
shown, forming 6
capacitors with a
capacitance 6 times that of
one pair of plates.
• If such an arrangement has n plates
then capacitance C∝(n−1).

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9. Example-2
a. A ceramic capacitor has an effective plate area of
4cm2 separated by 0.1mm of ceramic of relative
permittivity 100. Calculate the capacitance of the
capacitor in picofarads.
b. If the capacitor in part (a) is given a charge of 1.2μC,
what will be the p.d. between the plates?

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10. Example-3
A capacitor is made with 7 metal plates and separated
by sheets of mica having a thickness of 0.3 mm and a
relative permittivity of 6. The area of one side of each
plate is 500 cm2. Calculate the capacitance in
microfarads.

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11. Capacitors in Electric circuits
• A capacitor can be charged by
connecting the plates to the
terminals of a battery, which
are maintained at a potential
difference ∆V called the
terminal voltage
• The connection results in
sharing the charges between
the terminals and the plates

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12. Capacitors connected in parallel
• Suppose we have two capacitors 𝐶1
with charge 𝑄1 and 𝐶2 with charge
𝑄2 that are connected in parallel
• since Q is shared by the two
capacitors, we must have
• But
• Therefore, 𝑄 = 𝐶1 𝑉 + 𝐶2 𝑉 = 𝐶1 + 𝐶2 𝑉
𝑄
𝐶𝑒𝑞 = = 𝐶1 + 𝐶2
𝑉
• Thus, capacitors that are connected in
parallel add

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13. Capacitors connected in Series
• Therefore, 𝑉𝑇 = 𝑉1 + 𝑉2
𝑉𝑉11 𝑉2

• Or

• Or
• The generalization to any number of
capacitors connected in series is 𝑉𝑇

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14. Example 4
Calculate the equivalent capacitance of two capacitors of
6 μF and 4 μF connected
a) in parallel and
b) in series

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15. Example 5
Capacitances of 1 μF, 3 μF, 5 μF and 6 μF are connected
in parallel to a direct voltage supply of 100 V. Determine
a) The equivalent circuit capacitance
b) The total charge
c) The charge on each capacitor

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16. Example 6
Capacitances of 3 μF, 6 μF and 12 μF are connected in
series across a 350 V supply. Calculate
a) The equivalent circuit capacitance,
b) The charge on each capacitor
c) The pd across each capacitor.

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17. Dielectrics
• An insulating material between
the plates used to maintain a
physical separation of the plates
• Experimentally it was found that
capacitance C increases when the
space between the conductors is
filled with dielectrics
• Examples of Solid Dielectrics –
Ceramic, Plastic, Mica, and
Glass

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18. Dielectric
strength
The maximum amount of
field strength that a dielectric
can withstand is called the
dielectric strength of the
material.
19. Energy stored
• The energy, W, stored by a capacitor is given by

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20. Example 7
a) Determine the energy stored in a 3μF capacitor when
charged to 400V.
b) Find the average power developed if this energy is
dissipated in a time of 10 μs.

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21. Discharging a Capacitor
• When a capacitor has been disconnected from the
supply it may still be charged and it may retain this
charge for some considerable time.
• Thus, precautions must be taken to ensure that the
capacitor is automatically discharged after the supply is
switched off.
• This is done by connecting a high-value resistor across
the capacitor terminals.

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 Prescribed text
• Hughes E. (2008). Electrical & Electronic Technology. 10th Edition.
Pearson Prentice Hall.

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Recommended resources/ Reading lists
• Bird J. (2009). Electrical Circuit Theory and Technology. 3rd Edition.
Elsevier Private Limited. India

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Summary
In this lesson, we have:
• Developed a good understanding of Electromagnetism.

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Next lesson
• In the next lesson we will introduce Electric fields

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 THANK YOU

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