Chapter 25

Electrical current
Episode 2–Ohm’s law, EMF, energy and
power

Lecture 13 – Wednesday, June 9

 Outline of concepts

1. Electrical current
2. Resistivity, conductivity
3. Resistance, conductance
4. Ohm’s law
5. Effect of temperature on resistance
6. Electromotive force (EMF)
7. Energy and power
 Resistance (Ohm’s Law again)
The definition of electrical resistance is

  𝑉
𝑅=
𝐼
• V is the potential difference applied across a conductor.
• i is the resulting current.

This relationship is the macroscopic Ohm’s law.

  𝐸   𝑉
𝜌= 𝑅=
𝑗 𝐼

The unit of resistance is1volt per ampere = 1 ohm.

1 V/A = 1 Ω
 Resistance and Resistivity
  𝐸   𝑉 We’ll consider a piece of wire with length L and
𝜌= 𝑅= cross section area A.
𝑗 𝐼

  𝑉 𝐸𝐿 𝜌 𝑗𝐿 𝜌 𝐿
𝑅= = = =
𝐼 𝑗𝐴 𝑗𝐴 𝐴

  𝜌𝐿
𝑅=
𝐴
 Resistors
A resistor is a conductor which obeys Ohm’s Law
independent of the magnitude and direction of
the potential difference.

Practical resistors are colour

coded; their value is
obtained by the bands of
colour on the resistor.
https://www.parts-
express.com/themes/Default/Images/Company_Pages/Resources
/resistor-color-code-4_band.gif

Only certain values of resistance are normally available.

Symbol used in circuit diagrams
 Resistance and Conductance
For a given potential difference V:
when R is large, i is small
when R is small, i is large
The conductance is the inverse of resistance (1/R) and the siemens is the
inverse of ohm.
 𝑆= 1 =Ω− 1
Ω

Comments about Ohm’s law:

• The proportionality of V to i is Ohm’s Law which is obeyed by metallic
conductors.
• Other materials, semiconductor devices, and plasmas do not obey this law.
• Transistors and computer chips do not obey Ohm’s Law.
 Resistivity and Temperature
The resistivity of a metallic conductor
increases with temperature approximately linearly.

 = 0[1 +  (T – T0)]

 – 0 =  0 (T – T0)

0 is the resistivity at T0 and

 is the temperature coefficient of resistivity.

 Resistivity and Temperature

Copper
Over relatively large ranges (~400°C)
resistivity is effectively linear.
 Resistivity and Temperature

Example: light bulb (incandescent); V=120 V; Power = 60W

T=25oC
T 2500oC
R  30 W
R  240 W

i=4 A i= 0.5 A
 Semiconductors

Silicon is a semiconductor.
Silicon contains far fewer
charge carriers than a
conductor. 
Its temperature coefficient of
resistivity is negative, because
more charge carriers are produced
T
as the temperature rises. Semiconductor
 Super Conductors
At very low temperatures, the
resistance of some materials drops to
exactly 0.


“Room temperature" superconductors are Tc T

ceramic materials which become
superconductors at much higher
Superconductor
temperatures than most materials, although
they are still below room temperature.
Batteries and Electromotive Force (EMF)
• The charges move through the circuit from high potential to lover potential. This mans
from the positive terminal of the battery to the negative one.

• To close the loop and maintain a current through the circuit, the charges have
to move back from the negative to the positive terminal. This means from
low potential to high potential.

• The electric field won’t do this. We need an external force to push the
charges uphill.

• This force is called electromotive force and is produced by different

phenomena.
 Batteries and Electromotive Force (EMF)
• Batteries, electric generators, solar cells and thermopiles are all examples of
EMF devices.
• In a battery the EMF it’s produced by chemical reactions and diffusion.
• In a generator is produced by magnetic forces.

• EMF originally stood for electromotive force.

• The quantity used to measure the EMF is not a force but a potential difference.
• So it measures the energy per unit charge spent by the battery moving the charges uphill.
 EMF
The emf of a device is denoted by E or E

The device does work on a charge when it

moves the charge from the low-potential end to
the high potential end and the definition of the
EMF is   𝑊
𝐸=
𝑞
It has the same form as the definition of potential difference:
work or energy per unit charge.
 Single Loop Circuit
In this single-loop circuit, the
work done by the battery on the
charges is dissipated as heat in
the resistor.

The battery moves the charges uphill, from low potential to high potential.
Then the charges are moved by the electric field downhill, from high potential to
low potential.
 Circuit with ideal battery

Ideally there is no energy dissipated inside the battery. If we neglect the energy dissipated
inside the battery we call it ideal battery.
In this case we have
  𝐸
𝐸=𝑉 =𝑖𝑅
  or 𝑖=
𝑅
 Circuit with real battery
• A real battery has some internal
resistance so part of the EMF is used to
drive charges through this resistance.
r • The potential difference provided to the
external resistor is less than the EMF.
• The internal resistance is modeled as a
resistor in series with an ideal battery.

 𝐸=𝑉   𝐸
𝑟 +𝑉 𝑅 =𝑖𝑟+ 𝑖𝑅=𝑖 (𝑟 + 𝑅) or 𝑖=
𝑅+𝑟

This is Ohm’s law for the full circuit.

 Power in Electric Circuits
Charge q moves across the device
(blue rectangle) which has a potential
difference V across it due to the
battery.

b is at a lower potential than a, and hence

potential energy of the charge decreases by

Δ𝑈
  =−𝑊 =− 𝑞 Δ 𝑉 =− ( 𝑖 Δ𝑡 ) 𝑅𝑖=− 𝑅 𝑖 2 Δ𝑡

So the work done by the field is positive and this results in increase of other
forms of energies.
Power in Electric Circuits

This loss of electrical potential energy

results in an increase in another form of
energy, often heat and light.

The rate of transfer of the electrical

energy into other forms of energy is
the electric power

  𝑊 2
𝑃= =𝑅 𝑖
  Δ𝑡

dt
 Power in Electric Circuits
Using Ohm’s law for the resistor we can find three different
expressions for the power:

 𝑃= 𝑅 𝑖 2  𝑃=𝑉𝑖   𝑉2
𝑃=
𝑅

The unit of power is

V x A = J/s= watt

 
(same as the unit for mechanical power)
 s