ELECTRICITY AND CIRCUITS
Basic Introduction To Electricity And Circuits
ELECTRICITY
Electricity is a form of energy made from the existence of charged particles, such as electrons and protons.
Atoms and Electrons
Atoms are somewhat related to electrons. Atoms are the basic building blocks of all matters. Atoms consist of electrons in it. Atoms consist of a neutron which contains a positive charge. Electrons are the negatively charged particles around an atom. Together, all of the electrons of an atom create a negative charge that balances the positive charge of the protons in the atomic nucleus.
Types of Electricity
There are two types of electricity, Current and static electricity. Current electricity is the flow of an electric charge. It is often carried out by moving electrons through a wire. Static electricity is a stationary electric charge usually formed by friction. It causes sparks and crackling. An example of static electricity is when you rub a balloon on your hair.
OHM'S LAW
Ohm's law works with the relationship between the voltage and the current in a conductor. The relationship shows that the difference between voltage and a conductor is proportional to the current through it.
V (Voltage), I (Current), R (Resistance)
There are three factors in ohm's law.
Ohm's Law is given by:
V = I R
Voltage = Current (x) Resistance
The voltage, current and resistance all rely on each other. If one is changed the others will be affected. For example, if the voltage is increased the current will increase which may cause the conductor to explode if there is no resistance. This is because the electrons are moving too fast. If the resistance is increased the electrons will move at a slower rate.
CIRCUITS
There are two types 2 types of circuits, a parallel circuit and a single series circuit. A parallel circuit has two or more paths for current to flow through. Voltage is the same across each component of the parallel circuit. A single series circuit is much different. A single series circuit has more than one resistor and gets its name from only having one path for the charges to move along.
A circuit is made up of 5 parts:
1. Power source - i.e. electric main or battery
2. Conduit - electric wire3. Power switch
4. Power load - i.e. TV set, light bulb etc.
5. Resistor
WATTS
A watt is a measure of energy flow or power done by something or someone. One watt is the amount of work done by a circuit. A kilo watt is a 1000 watts, a mega watt is 1 million watts and a giga watt is equal to 1 billion watts! Watts are used in everyday life. They are found in every electronic appliance. For example, if a laptop was to be left on for 24 hours, it would use approximately 700 watts compared too if it was off or charging, it would only use about 394 watts.