Current of Electricity and

DC Circuits
Electric Current

Take a wire with electric current passing through

The amount of charge passing through the cross sectional area of the wire per unit
time is the current

The direction of current is same as the direction of the flow of positive charges
(opposite to flow of negative charges)
SI units for current: Cs-1
Looking closer at charges
δx
- e F +
e

When a conductor is connected to an emf source, a force would act on the mobile charges,
each of charge q
The force would cause the mobile charges to accelerate
Collisions between mobile charges and fixed atoms cause mobile charges to move on average
in one direction with an average velocity called mean velocity v, which creates electric current
Given mobile charges are usually distributed evenly throughout the material, we can describe
this distribution using number density n (number of mobile charge carriers per unit volume)
If we take the segment of wire of length δx and cross sectional area A, the number of charge
carriers passing through that segment in time δt would be

The charge through that segment would be

Since current is defined as ,

Since , this simplifies to
Exercise
A copper wire with diameter 0.5mm and length 11m is connected to a
battery of emf 1.0V. Given that copper has a number density of 1x1029
free electrons per m3, and the resistivity of copper is 1.77x10-8 Ωm-1,
calculate the drift velocity of the electrons in the wire.
Electromotive Force (emf)
Sources of emf converts other forms of energy to electrical form

Thus the electromotive force E, of a source is the energy converted per

unit electric charge to electrical energy in driving charge round a
complete circuit.

The power of the source is , where I is current

Potential difference (pd)
Due to the electric field set up within an electrical circuit to drive charges round the
circuit, a potential difference would be set up between different points of the circuit
The conventional current will flow from a point of higher electric potential to a point of
lower electric potential in the circuit
The potential difference V between 2 points in a circuit is therefore defined as the
energy converted per unit electric charge from electrical energy to other forms of
energy when charge is moved between 2 points
Usually it is not useful talking about specific potentials within an electric circuit, and
hence only potential differences are significant in electric circuits
Without any specific reference point, any point within a circuit can be defined as having
0 potential. However with the presence of an earthing point , that point will
become the point of 0 potential
Resistance
Resistance is the ratio of the potential difference V across the device to
the current I flowing through it.
To examine resistance, we must examine the material (resistivity), the
cross sectional area charges can flow through A, and the length of the
conductor L.
• The less conductive the material, the higher the resistivity
• The thinner the wire, the less area the electrons have to flow through,
the higher the resistance
• The longer the wire, the more energy lost in charges, the greater the
resistance
Exercise
• Three resistors are connected as shown in the diagram using
connecting wires of negligible resistance. What is the approximate
resistance between P and Q?
3.0
P 1.0Ω 2.0Ω Ω Q
Analyzing I-V characteristics of electrical
components
To take the resistance of any resistor, just divide voltage by
current
• Metallic Conductor at constant temperature (Ohmic)

• Semiconductor Diode
• Note that the arrow indicates the favourable direction of
conventional current flow
• Filament Lamp (non-ohmic resistor)
• Resistance increases with emf
• (NTC) Thermistor
• Resistance decreases with emf/heat
Internal resistance in emf sources
• While emf sources are typically assumed to
be ideal, in real life they have an internal
resistance
• Thus the emf supplied to the circuit is
smaller than the actual emf of the source
• To determine the potential across the
terminals of the cell(terminal pd), we use
the equation
Exercise
• A complete circuit consists of a 24.0V battery, a 5.60Ω resistor and a
switch. The internal resistance of the battery is 0.28V. What does a
voltmeter read when placed
a) Across the terminals of the battery?
b) Across the resistor?
c) Across the switch?
Repeat a) b) and c) for when the switch is closed
Potential dividers and potentiometers
• Observe the circuit shown below
• By taking combinations of points between R1 and R2,
such as A and B or B and C and connecting wires to
those points, we can supply different amounts of
voltage to an external circuit A B C
• When the resistors are replaced by a resistance wire
or rheostat, a variable potential difference with high
sensitivity can be created
Potentiometers
ε
• A potentiometer consists of a main driver circuit of emf
ε and a long resistance wire (in bold)
• The arrow indicates a metallic contact called jockey,
which can move throughout the wire to change G
potential supplied to secondary circuit
• When the secondary circuit consists of an emf, we can ε1
measure the secondary emf by moving the jockey
around until the galvanometer shows null deflection
(no current in secondary circuit), as that means the
potential difference between those points on the
primary circuit would be equivalent to the emf of the
secondary circuit
Exercise
A potentiometer is set-up to determine the emf ε

ε1. The driving emf ε is 10.0V. The length of

resistance wire is 1m. However, there was no point
O
of null deflection in the galvanometer. Explain why
G
there was no deflection in the galvanometer.
Now assume that a null point was found 0.7m ε1

from junction O. Find ε1.

It is now found that ε has an internal resistance of
0.5Ω, and the resistance per unit length of the wire
is 2Ω/m. Find ε1.