Electric Circuits

Lecture 1:
Introduction

By Sheharyar Zahid

Course Outline & Book List

Course outline is provided separately
The officially recommended book is
Fundamentals of Electric Circuits
By Sergio Franco
You are also advised to consult the
reference books mentioned in the
course outline, for selective reading.

Assessment Weightages
Theory
(75%)

Quizzes (10%)
Assignment(2%)
Sessional Examination I &
II (25%)
Final Examination (38%)

Practical
(25%)

A minimum class ATTENDANCE of 75%

is required to be eligible for appearing
in the final examination.

The basics
What is current?
What is a charge?
Atoms can be negatively or positively charged
(based on the borrowing or lending of electrons)
Charge(Q) is measured in Coulombs (C) as a
standard convention
Current(I) is measured in Amperes(A) as a
standard convention
1 ampere is defined as a 1 coulomb charge
passing a point in a circuit in 1 second
An electron carries a charge of 1.60 x 10-19 C
Therefore 6.24 x 1018 electrons constitute a 1
Coulomb charge

Charge Flow and Conduction

Having defined charge, it can be said that current is the
flow of charge
Materials can either be electrical conductors, insulators or
semiconductors
Electrical current requires free electrons for mobility (i.e.
the charge is physically carried via borrowed free
electrons)
Conductors have more free electrons whereas insulators
have less free electrons
What makes Copper a good conductor of electricity?
At room temperature, Copper has free electrons of the
order of 1023 electrons/Cm3
This makes Copper a very good conductor of electricity

Coulombs Law
Coulombs Law
Statement: The force between 2 charges Q1 and
Q2 is directly proportional to the product of their
charges and inversely proportional to their
distance apart
Mathematical Notation: F = (k Q1 Q2)/(r2)
Where F = force
Q1 & Q2 = charges
r = distance between Q1 and Q2
k = 1/(4 0)

Coulombs Law and

Conduction
As coulombs law indicates, within an atom, the
least tightly bound electrons will be the valence
electrons
These valance electrons have an energy threshold (
overcome by applying sufficient energy) in order to
break free and become mobile electrons and
hence carry charge
The amount of energy required depends on the
number of valance electrons present in the atom
If the valance shell is full (or nearly full), electrons
are more tightly bound and there are lesser free
electrons

Speed of Electric Charge

Within all metals, electrons are able to move
The speed of this electron flow (drift velocity) is
actually very slow (order of mm/s in copper wire)
Electron speed in a wire depends on
Value of electric current (Amperes) [Directly proportional]
Diameter of the wire [Inversely proportional]
What is the conducting material i.e. how dense is the electron
sea?

Now that we have established that the drift velocity of

electrons within a conducting medium can be quite
slow, the obvious question arises, why does electrical
energy seem to travel almost instantaneously in a
circuit?

 Imagine a bulb connected in series with a

battery(voltage source) and a switch
When the switch is closed it sets up an electric
potential difference (thanks to the battery) across the
circuit
This electric field signal travels nearly at the speed of
light (the exact value depends on conducting medium
and such)
That is why the bulb turns on almost instantaneously
In other words, when the switch is flipped, it generates
an electric field (nearly comparable to the speed of
light) which causes the electrons throughout the circuit
to almost instantaneously gain energy and become
mobile
NOTE that this electron movement is for the case of DC
current, in AC current the electrons vibrate rather than flow

Resistance and
Conductance
Resistance(R) is the opposition offered to current
flow, measured in Ohms()
Conductance (G) measured in Siemens(S) can be
defined as the reciprocal of resistance
G = 1/R
As a general standard, resistors are color coded
as the heat they dissipate tends to burn away any
physical writing on the device
As an electronic/electrical/telecom engineer it
would be very useful to memorize the resistor
color code

Resistor Color Code

Ohms Law
Suppose a battery is connected to provide 1 volt (V), connected
with copper wire to a 1 load

Ohms law: I = V/R

The current set up in this circuit (ignoring wiring/internal
resistances) will amount to an Ampere
Notice that this law states that current is directly proportional to
voltage and inversely proportional to resistance

Resistive circuits
Circuits may employ resistances in series or in
parallel

Mathematically, the total resistance RT :

-Series case-Parallel caseRT = R 1 + R 2
1/RT = 1/R1 + 1/R2

Kirchhoffs Laws
Kirchhoffs Current Law (KCL):
Statement: Current entering a junction equals
the current leaving that junction

I 1 + I 3 = I 4 + I5
+ I2
[2]

Kirchhoffs Laws
Kirchhoffs Voltage Law (KVL):
Statement: The sum of the EMF sources around any
closed loop is equivalent to the sum of potential drops in
that loop

See example on
page 32, Franco

[2]

Power dissipation
When a voltage is applied across a resistor and
current flows through it, power is dissipated in
the resistor as heat energy.
This power can be calculated by using the
equation
P=VI
Measured in Watts
Also note that the power is conserved in a circuit

Electrical Ground
Having talked about voltage, remember that it is
actually a potential difference between two points.
Therefore to find out the voltage at any point in the
circuit we need a reference point to compare it to.
This reference point is often called Ground or
Earth, and is said to be at zero voltage
Often depicted in circuit diagrams as follows:

Sometimes also referred to as the reference node (or

datum node)

Direction of and current and charge

We have talked about the flow of charge but we
have not yet talked about the direction of this flow.
Conventional current is defined as the flow of
positive charge and it flows from the positive
terminal to the negative terminal since opposite
charges attract
Positive charge is the absence of an electron, in
semiconductor theory we call it a hole
But the flow of electrons and negative charge is
from the negative terminal to the positive one
In fact to some degree you could even say that the
direction of flow is irrelevant
Just follow these rules and conventions and it will
help you not only in this module but others as well
throughout your course

Relation between charge and

current
Recall the formal definition of an ampere
If we can take a point in a circuit and somehow
Know the amount of charge on each particle
Measure the number of particles passing through that
point per unit time

We can then measure the current in amperes

when we know how many coulombs are passing
through that point per second

Difference between EMF and

Voltage
EMF is the electromotive force and typically refers to
the source voltage on zero load
Voltage on the other hand is a more general term and
can be used to describe the potential difference
between any two points in a closed circuit
Note that practical EMF sources do have an internal
resistance and hence an internal voltage drop.
However, if you would consider this trivial difference
then the EMF would always be greater than the
voltage of a source

Signals
An electrical signal can be defined as a function
that conveys information about the behavior or
attributes of some phenomenon [3]
A direct current (DC) signal is one that remains
constant with respect to time. A constant voltage
is required to bring this about so do not be
confused when you hear the term DC voltage.
A time varying signal on the other hand is a bit
more complicated and changes its value with
time as the name implies
Read more about signals in Franco pg.16.
Background reading is essential for success,

[1]

lent steady state average DC current for a time varying sign

[1]

AC Signal
Another elementary signal you must know about
is the alternating current signal
It is a periodic signal i.e. it repeats itself after a
defined period (one time period equals the
reciprocal of signal frequency)
An AC signal alternates between the positive
maximum peak (+Xm) and the negative one (-Xm)
forming a sinusoidal wave
Another important value is the peak to peak value
of the current (Xpk-pk) which would be twice Xm
[1]
The root mean square value is given by

AC Sine Wave

[1]

Instantaneous value can be calculated

from:
[1]

Loops and Meshes

A loop is a closed path such that no node is
traversed more than once

How many loops

exist here?

How many
meshes exist
here?

[1]

A mesh is a loop that contains no other loops

A Node is a point where the connections of 2 or
more elements meet

Loops and Meshes

Six loops are present. Can you guess which ones?

[1]

[1]

These are all loops according to the

definition of a loop
Which ones are the meshes
then?
The answer is . First 3 loops are
also meshes!

Current and Voltage sources

A voltage source enforces a specified voltage
across its terminals, irrespective of the current
A current source enforces a specified current
irrespective of the voltage across its terminals
Sources can release power therefore they are
active elements

[1]

[1]

Sources
Voltage sources may be connected in series and
their overall voltage will add up as described in
KVL
However differing voltage sources connected in
parallel would violate KVL, a load resistance is
required to manage this configuration
Current sources work in a different way though,
they add up in parallel
For an in-depth understanding see Franco pg. 44

Resistivity
A copper wire also has a resistance associated
with it and it happens to be
Elements have a parameter known as resistivity
This parameter, in combination with the
dimensional description of the object/surface in
question can be used to calculate the resistance
A copper wire of 0.1mm diameter would have a
resistance of 0.0213/m
Resistance of a wire Rw =(*l)/A
Where
l = length
A= Cross-sectional area
= resistivity constant (material dependent property)

Some instructions/information:
You are expected to maintain a primary email
account that you will monitor regularly.
Lecture slides, announcements, problem sheets and
other learning materials will be regularly emailed
out
Quizzes will be not be announced and will (usually)
examine your understanding of a preceding
lecture. (this is not a promise, hence the use of
the word usually)
This module is very important as it is elementary
material and is a pre-requisite for many of your
other courses, so do yourself a favor and do well!

References
[1]
Franco, S 1995, Electric circuit fundamentals, 2nd Edn,
Saunders College Publishing
[2]
Kirchhoffs circuit laws, Wikipedia, viewed 10th September
2012, en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/kirchhoffs_circuit_laws
[3]
Ronald, P 1991 Introductory signal processing World
Scientific. p1