IGCSE PHYSICS NOTE

IGCSE: DEFINITIONS ELECTRICITY

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CONCEPTS

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HAZARDS OF ELECTRICITY: Broken plugs and frayed wires can expose the metal wires or parts of the plug that carries electricity. Anyone touching these would get an electric shock, so they must be replaced as soon as the damage occurs. Any one poking metal objects into a socket will also get an electric shock. Cables to electrical appliances must be kept as short as possible to prevent them causing spills. Water can conduct electricity at high voltages, so spilling water onto electrical equipment can be dangerous. Water should also be kept away from sockets and you must never use electrical equipments with wet hands. USE OF EARTHING: Earth wire provides a low-resistance path for the current to escape into the ground. Its connected to any metal part of an appliance to the earth so that touching the metal parts dont give of an electric shock as current passes through our body to the earth if, the appliance generates a fault. DOUBLE INSULATION: Surface casings of appliances made from insulators reduce the chances of getting electric shocks significantly as its having insulation. If all electrical parts of such an appliance are insulated so that they cant be touched by the user, the appliance is said to have double insulation. HEATING EFFECT OF CURRENT: In appliances with high resistance, as the current passes through the element, energy is transferred and the elements circuit heats up. This effect is mainly used in appliances like fan heaters, hair dryers, cookers, electric kettles, toaster and etc. ELECTRIC POWER (P): Its related to the voltage across an element and the current flowing through it. Its calculated in watts (W) and 1W of power means energy of 1J transferred per second; i.e., 1W = 1J/s. P = VI ELECTRIC CHARGE (Q): The cause of electric fields and currents. Its the charge carried by electron. Overall charge can be either positive or negative. Q = I t ELECTRICAL CONDUCTOR: A material which allows electric charge to flow ELECTRICAL SEMI-CONDUCTOR: In between materials which are poor conductors when hot and better conductors when warm. ELECTRICAL INSULATOR: A material which prevents the flow of electric charge. EARTHING: The connection of a conductor to the earth which allows electric charge to flow. 178555969.docBY RAJ

IGCSE PHYSICS NOTE ELECTRIC FIELD: The space around an electric charge in which another charge will experience a force. ELECTRIC CURRENT (I): The flow of electric charge per unit time. AMPERE (A): The unit of electric current. COULOMB (C): The unit of electric charge. When a current of 1A flows, 1C of charge passes every 1s; i.e., 1A = 1C /s DIRECT CURRENT: An electric current where the electrons flow in the same direction all the time (conventional current flows from + to -). A battery delivers DC. ALTERNATING CURRENT: An electric current which is constantly changing direction of its flow. The mains supply is AC. AMMETER: An instrument which measures electric current. It must be connected in series with the current it is measuring. LED: Its a diode which glows when current is flowing through them. LDR: Its a resistor whose resistance changes with lighting. In dark conditions LDR contain few electrons and it hence has high resistance while in bright condition, a LDRs no. of free electrons increase and thus its resistance decreases. THERMISTOR: Its a resistor made from semi-conducting materials whose resistance changes with temperature. At low temperatures, the no. of free electrons is small and hence it has high resistance but at high temperatures, no. of free electrons increases and thus its resistance decreases. SERIES: Components are connected end to end in a chain. ADVANTAGE One switch can turn all the components on and off together and the current is same in all parts of the circuit. DISADVANTAGE Voltage gets divided among the components and if one component breaks or goes out it causes a gap, which causes all the other components to go out as well. PARALLEL: Components are connected in branches; a ladder formation. ADVANTAGE Switches can be placed in different parts of the circuits to switch each component on and off individually or all together. If one component goes out, only the components in that branch will be affected. Each branch receives the same voltage, so if more components are added to a circuit in parallel they all get the same voltage. DISADVANTAGE: Current gets divided to the branches equally.

178555969.docBY RAJ

IGCSE PHYSICS NOTE SERIES CIRCUIT: the current depends on the applied voltage and the number and nature of other components. KIRCHHOFFS LAW: The current flowing into any point in a circuit is equal to the current flowing out of it. JOULE (J): Unit of energy. ENERGY TRANSFERRED: Calculated by, E = IV t or E = VQ WATT (W): Unit of power. 1W = 1J/s POTENTIAL DIFFERENCE (V): When a source builds up an excess amount of electrons at the negative terminal, it is said to have a potential difference across its terminals (i.e. a current would flow if there were a circuit connection). It is also known as voltage and is a measure of energy transferred per coulomb flowing between two points. VOLT (V): When 1 coulomb passes between two points and transfers 1 joule of energy, the potential difference between the points is 1 volt. 1V = 1J/C. P.D. = E/Q or V = IR VOLTMETER: An instrument which measures the potential difference between two points. It must be connected in parallel with the P.D. it is measuring. E.M.F.: The maximum voltage of a source. The rate of how many joules per coulomb it can transfer. RESISTANCE (R): The amount that a component resists the flow of current. R=V/I VARIATION When resistance is increased, less current will be able to flow. When resistance is decreased, more current will be able to flow provided that the P.D. is constant. OHM (): The unit of resistance. The resistance(1) of a conductor where the current is 1A when a PD of 1V is across it. OHMS LAW: The current through a metallic conductor is directly proportional to the voltage across its ends if the temperature and other conditions are constant. ATTRACTION/REPULSION: Forces of attraction between to unlikely charged objects causes attraction and forces of repulsion between likely charged objects causes repulsion. ELECTROSTATIC CHARGE: Insulating materials can be charged by loss and gain of electrons by friction/rubbing them. HOW Say a cloth and a plastic rod initially uncharged i.e., equal no. of +ve and -ve charges. If they are rubbed together, electrons from the atoms of the rod may move onto the cloth. There is now an 178555969.docBY RAJ

IGCSE PHYSICS NOTE imbalance of charge in both objects. The rod is short of electrons and so is positively charged and the cloth has excess electrons and so is negatively charged. ADVANTAGES Electrostatic phenomena comes in many uses like in photocopy machines, inkjet printers, spray painting and etc. DISADVANTAGES Its a problem and sometimes potentially dangerous when static electricity is around us; transfer of fuel tanks on roads is dangerous and must be earthed to prevent sparks causing a fire or explosion. An aircraft may become charged after a journey and so when refuelling it must be earthed with a conductor to prevent charges from escaping to earth as a spark which could cause an explosion. Television screens and computer monitors become statically charged as they are used. These charges attract dust and other light uncharged particles.

178555969.docBY RAJ