DEBRE TABOR UNIVERSITY

Faculty of technology
DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL &COMPUTER ENGINEERING

Fundamentals of Electrical Circuit

For 2nd year Electrical Engineering Students
By: AYALSEW A.

7/2/2021 1
 Chapter One

Review of Electromagnetic Phenomenon and Variables

 OUTLINE
1. Basic Concepts

➢ System of Units

➢ Charge, Coulomb’s Law, Electric Field

➢ Current and Voltage

➢ Energy and Power, the Passive sign convention

➢ Circuit Elements

➢ Electric sources (ideal/real; independent/dependent)

3
 Introduction
➢ 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,
➢ The energy sources we use to make electricity can be renewable or non-renewable,

4
 Basic Concepts
System Units
➢ As electrical engineers, we deal with measurable quantities.

➢ Our measurement, however, must be communicated in a standard language.

➢ Such language is the International System of Units (SI)

(adopted by 1960 Conference).

➢ There are six principal units from which the units

of all other physical quantities can be derived (table 1.1)

➢ One great advantage of the SI unit is that it uses prefixes

based on the power of 10 to relate larger and smaller units

to the basic unit as shown in table 1.2

5
 Charge, Coulomb’s Law, Electric Field
Electric Charge

➢ Is an electric property of the atomic particle of which matter consists, measured in Coulomb (C).
➢ all matter is made of fundamental building blocks known as atoms and that each atom consists of electrons, protons,
and neutrons.

➢ There are two kinds of electric charges Called positive and negative

✓ Negative charges are the type possessed by electrons (-1.602×10-19 C)

✓ Positive charges are the type possessed by protons (1.602×10-19 C)

➢ Charges of the same sign repel one another and

➢ charges with opposite signs attract one another

➢ Electric charge is always conserved and isolated system.

6
 Charge, Coulomb’s Law, Electric Field
Coulomb’s Law

States that "The magnitude of the electrostatic force of attraction or repulsion between two-point charges is

➢ directly proportional to the product of the magnitudes of charges

➢ But, inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.

7
 Charge, Coulomb’s Law, Electric Field
Electric Field
➢ Is the physical field that surrounds electrically- charged particles and exerts force on all other charged particles in the field,
either attracting or repelling them.

➢ It also refers to the physical field for a system of charged particles.

➢ Electric fields originate from electric charges, or from time-varying magnetic field.

➢ Electric fields and magnetic fields are both manifestations (indicators) of the electromagnetic force,

➢ The electric field is defined as the electric force on the test charge per unit charge

➢ The direction of E is also away from the positive source charge and to ward to

➢ the negative source charge

8
 Current and Voltage
Current

➢ When a conducting wire is connected to a battery the charges are compelled to move; positive charges move in one
direction while negative charges move in the opposite direction.

➢ This motion of charges creates electric current.

➢ It is the time rate of change of charge produces an electrical current

➢ There are 2 types of currents

9
 Current …..
Current

Examples 1. Determine the total charge entering a terminal between t = 1 s and t = 2 s if the current passing the
terminal is i = (3t ^2 − t) A.

2. Figure below shows the current through and the voltage across a device. Find the total energy absorbed by the
device for the period of 0 < t < 4 s.

3.

10
 Cont’d…
Voltage
➢ To move the electron in a conductor in a particular direction requires some work or energy transfer.

➢ This work is performed by an external electromotive force (emf),

➢ This emf is also known as voltage or potential difference.

➢ The voltage vab between two points a and b in an electric circuit is the

energy (or work) needed to move a unit charge

from a to b;

Mathematically,

➢ Thus, Voltage (or potential difference) is the energy require to move a unit charge through an element, measured in
volts (V).

11
 Power and Energy
Power

➢ Current and voltage are the two basic variables in an electric circuit, they are not sufficient by themselves.

➢ For practical purposes, we need to know how much power an electric device can handle.

➢ We know that when we pay our bills to the electric utility companies, we are paying for the electric energy
consumed over a certain period of time.

➢ Thus power and energy calculations are important in circuit analysis.

➢ Power is the time rate of expending or absorbing energy, measured in watts (W)

➢ Energy is the capacity to do work, measured in joules ( J).

12
 Passive Sign convention
➢ Current direction and voltage polarity play a major role in determining the sign of power.

➢ Thus, it is important that we pay attention to the relationship between current i and voltage v in Fig. below.

13
 Circuit Elements
➢ is the basic building block of a circuit.

➢ An electric circuit is simply an interconnection of the elements.

➢ Circuit analysis is the process of determining voltages across (the currents through) the elements of the ckt.

There are two types of elements found in electric circuits (active & passive elements)

1. Passive elements: has not capable of generating energy of passive elements are Resistor, Capacitors
and Inductors.

2. Active elements: is capable of generating energy. (generators, batteries, and operational amplifiers).

➢ The most important active elements are voltage or current sources that generally deliver
power to the circuit connected to them.
➢ There are two kinds of sources (Independent and Dependent sources)
14
 Independent and Dependent sources
Independent source: is an active element that provides a specified voltage or current that is
completely independent of other circuit variables.

➢ In other words, an ideal independent voltage source delivers to the circuit whatever current is
necessary to maintain its terminal voltage.

➢ Similarly, an ideal independent current source is an active element that provides a specified
current completely independent of the voltage across the source.

15
 Independent and Dependent sources
Dependent (Controlled) Source: is an active element in which the source quantity is controlled by
another voltage or current. Are designated by diamond-shaped symbols, as shown in Fig. below.

16