Electric Current

Electric current is the rate of flow of charge

through a conductor:

The instantaneous current is given by:

Unit of electric current: the ampere, A:

1 A = 1 C/s.

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 Electric Current

A complete circuit is one where current can

flow all the way around. Note that the
schematic drawing doesn’t look much like the
physical circuit!

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 Electric Current

Example 25-1: Current is flow of charge.

A steady current of 2.5 A exists in a wire
for 4.0 min. (a) How much total charge
passed by a given point in the circuit
during those 4.0 min? (b) How many
electrons would this be?

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 Electric Current
By convention, current is defined as flowing
from + to -. Electrons actually flow in the
opposite direction, but not all currents consist
of electrons.

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 Ohm’s Law: Resistance and
Resistors

Experimentally, it is found that the

current in a wire is proportional to
the potential difference between its
ends:

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 Ohm’s Law: Resistance and
Resistors
The ratio of voltage to current is called the
resistance:

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 Ohm’s Law: Resistance and
Resistors
In many conductors, the
resistance is independent
of the voltage; this
relationship is called
Ohm’s law. Materials that
do not follow Ohm’s law
are called nonohmic.

Unit of resistance:
the ohm, Ω:
1 Ω = 1 V/A.
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 Ohm’s Law: Resistance and
Resistors
Conceptual Example 25-3: Current and
potential.
Current I enters a resistor R as shown. (a)
Is the potential higher at point A or at point
B? (b) Is the current greater at point A or at
point B?

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 Ohm’s Law: Resistance and
Resistors

Example 25-4: Flashlight bulb

resistance.
A small flashlight bulb draws 300
mA from its 1.5-V battery. (a) What
is the resistance of the bulb? (b) If
the battery becomes weak and the
voltage drops to 1.2 V, how would
the current change?

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 Ohm’s Law: Resistance and
Resistors
Some clarifications:
• Batteries maintain a (nearly) constant
potential difference; the current varies.
• Resistance is a property of a material or
device.
• Current is not a vector but it does have a
direction.
• Current and charge do not get used up.
Whatever charge goes in one end of a circuit
comes out the other end.
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 Resistivity
The resistance of a wire is directly
proportional to its length and inversely
proportional to its cross-sectional area:

The constant ρ, the resistivity, is

characteristic of the material.

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 Resistivity
This table gives the resistivity and temperature
coefficients of typical conductors, semiconductors,
and insulators.

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 Resistivity
Example 25-5: Speaker wires.
Suppose you want to connect
your stereo to remote
speakers. (a) If each wire must
be 20 m long, what diameter
copper wire should you use to
keep the resistance less than
0.10 Ω per wire? (b) If the
current to each speaker is 4.0
A, what is the potential
difference, or voltage drop,
across each wire?
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 Resistivity

Conceptual Example 25-6: Stretching

changes resistance.
Suppose a wire of resistance R could be
stretched uniformly until it was twice its
original length. What would happen to
its resistance?

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 Resistivity

For any given material, the resistivity

increases with temperature:

Semiconductors are complex materials, and

may have resistivities that decrease with
temperature.

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 Resistivity
Example 25-7: Resistance thermometer.
The variation in electrical resistance with
temperature can be used to make precise
temperature measurements. Platinum is
commonly used since it is relatively free from
corrosive effects and has a high melting point.
Suppose at 20.0°C the resistance of a platinum
resistance thermometer is 164.2 Ω. When
placed in a particular solution, the resistance is
187.4 Ω. What is the temperature of this
solution?

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 Electric Power
Power, as in kinematics, is the energy
transformed by a device per unit time:

The unit of power is the watt, W.

For ohmic devices, we can make the
substitutions:

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 Electric Power

Example 25-8: Headlights.

Calculate the resistance of a 40-W
automobile headlight designed for 12 V.

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 Electric Power

Example 25-9: Electric heater.

An electric heater draws a steady 15.0
A on a 120-V line. How much power
does it require and how much does it
cost per month (30 days) if it operates
3.0 h per day and the electric company
charges 9.2 cents per kWh?

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 Electric Power
Example 25-10: Lightning bolt.
Lightning is a spectacular example of
electric current in a natural phenomenon.
There is much variability to lightning bolts,
but a typical event can transfer 109 J of
energy across a potential difference of
perhaps 5 x 107 V during a time interval of
about 0.2 s. Use this information to
estimate (a) the total amount of charge
transferred between cloud and ground, (b)
the current in the lightning bolt, and (c) the
average power delivered over the 0.2 s.
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 Microscopic View of Electric Current:
Current Density and Drift Velocity
Electrons in a conductor have large, random
speeds just due to their temperature. When a
potential difference is applied, the electrons
also acquire an average drift velocity, which is
generally considerably smaller than the
thermal velocity.

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 Microscopic View of Electric
Current: Current Density and Drift
Velocity
We define the current density (current per
unit area) – this is a convenient concept
for relating the microscopic motions of
electrons to the macroscopic current:

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 Microscopic View of Electric
Current: Current Density and Drift
Velocity
This drift speed is related to the current in the
wire, and also to the number of electrons per unit
volume:

and

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 Microscopic View of Electric
Current: Current Density and Drift
Velocity
Example 25-14: Electron speeds in a wire.
A copper wire 3.2 mm in diameter carries a 5.0-
A current. Determine (a) the current density in
the wire, and (b) the drift velocity of the free
electrons. (c) Estimate the rms speed of
electrons assuming they behave like an ideal
gas at 20°C. Assume that one electron per Cu
atom is free to move (the others remain bound
to the atom).

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 Microscopic View of Electric Current:
Current Density and Drift Velocity

The electric field inside a current-carrying

wire can be found from the relationship
between the current, voltage, and resistance.
Writing R = ρ l/A, I = jA, and V = El, and
substituting in Ohm’s law gives:

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 Microscopic View of Electric
Current: Current Density and Drift
Velocity
Example 25-15: Electric field inside a wire.
What is the electric field inside the wire of
Example 25–14? (The current density was
found to be 6.2 x 105 A/m2.)

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 Summary
• A battery is a source of constant potential
difference.
• Electric current is the rate of flow of electric
charge.
• Conventional current is in the direction that
positive charge would flow.
• Resistance is the ratio of voltage to current:

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 Summary
• Ohmic materials have constant resistance,
independent of voltage.
• Resistance is determined by shape and
material:

• ρ is the resistivity.

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 Summary
• Power in an electric circuit:

• Relation between drift speed and current:

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