Lecture Outline

Chapter 17
College Physics, 7th Edition
Wilson / Buffa / Lou

2010 Pearson Education, Inc.

Chapter 17 Electric Current and Resistance

2010 Pearson Education, Inc.c

Units of Chapter 17
Batteries and Direct Current Current and Drift Velocity Resistance and Ohms Law Electric Power

2010 Pearson Education, Inc.c

17.1 Batteries and Direct Current

Electric current is the flow of electric charge. A battery is a source of electric energyit converts chemical energy into electric energy.

2010 Pearson Education, Inc.c

17.1 Batteries and Direct Current

In a complete circuit, electrons flow from the negative electrode to the positive one. The positive electrode is called the anode; the negative electrode is the cathode.

A battery provides a constant source of voltageit maintains a constant potential difference between its terminals.

2010 Pearson Education, Inc.c

17.1 Batteries and Direct Current

The potential difference between the battery terminals when the battery is not connected to anything is called the electromotive force, emf.

2010 Pearson Education, Inc.c

17.1 Batteries and Direct Current

The actual terminal voltage of the battery is always less than the emf, due to internal resistance. Usually the difference is very small.

2010 Pearson Education, Inc.c

17.1 Batteries and Direct Current

When batteries are connected in series, the total voltage is the sum of the individual voltages.

2010 Pearson Education, Inc.c

17.1 Batteries and Direct Current

When batteries of equal voltage are connected in parallel, the total voltage does not change; each battery supplies part of the total current.

2010 Pearson Education, Inc.c

17.1 Batteries and Direct Current

2010 Pearson Education, Inc.c

17.2 Current and Drift Velocity

Current is the time rate of flow of charge.

SI unit of current: the ampere, A

2010 Pearson Education, Inc.c

17.2 Current and Drift Velocity

Historically, the direction of current has been taken to be from positive to negative; this is opposite to the way electrons flow. However, this seldom matters.

2010 Pearson Education, Inc.c

17.2 Current and Drift Velocity

Electrons do not flow like water in a pipe. In the absence of voltage, they move randomly at high speeds, due to their temperature.
When a voltage is applied, a very small drift velocity is added to the thermal motion, typically around 1 mm/s; this is enough to yield the observed current.
2010 Pearson Education, Inc.c

17.3 Resistance and Ohms Law

If there is a potential difference across a conductor, how much current flows? The ratio between the voltage and the current is called the resistance.

SI unit of resistance: the ohm,

2010 Pearson Education, Inc.c

17.3 Resistance and Ohms Law

An ohmic material is one whose resistance is constant.

2010 Pearson Education, Inc.c

17.3 Resistance and Ohms Law

Ohms law is valid only for ohmic materials:

The resistance of a particular object depends on its length, crosssectional area, material, and temperature.
2010 Pearson Education, Inc.c

17.3 Resistance and Ohms Law

As expected, the resistance is proportional to the length and inversely proportional to the cross-sectional area (why?):

The constant is called the resistivity, and is characteristic of the material.

2010 Pearson Education, Inc.c

17.3 Resistance and Ohms Law

In this table, you can easily see the differences between the resistivities of conductors, semiconductors, and insulators.

2010 Pearson Education, Inc.c

17.3 Resistance and Ohms Law

For many materials, the temperature dependence of the resistivity is approximately linear, as long as the temperature change is not too large.

The constant is called the temperature coefficient of resistivity. Some values of are listed in the table on the previous page.

2010 Pearson Education, Inc.c

17.3 Resistance and Ohms Law

Some materials exhibit a curious phenomenon: at a very low temperature called the critical temperature, their resistivity drops abruptly to zero.

These are called superconductors; they have a number of unique properties. They are impractical for everyday home use, however, as they must be cooled to cryogenic temperatures.

2010 Pearson Education, Inc.c

17.4 Electric Power

Power, as usual, is the rate at which work is done. For work done by electricity:

Rewriting,
For ohmic materials, we can write:

2010 Pearson Education, Inc.c

17.4 Electric Power

So, where does this power go? It is changed to heat in resistive materials.

2010 Pearson Education, Inc.c

17.4 Electric Power

Electric appliances are rated in watts, assuming standard household voltage.

2010 Pearson Education, Inc.c

17.4 Electric Power

2010 Pearson Education, Inc.c

17.4 Electric Power

The electric company typically bills us for kilowatt-hours (kWh), a unit of energy.

We can reduce our energy usage by buying efficient appliances.

2010 Pearson Education, Inc.c

Review of Chapter 17
A battery produces emf; positive terminal is the anode, negative is the cathode. emf is measured in volts; it is the number of joules the battery supplies per coulomb of charge. An electric current can exist only in a complete circuit.

Resistance:

2010 Pearson Education, Inc.c

Review of Chapter 17
Ohms law is obeyed if the resistance is constant: The resistance of an object depends on its length, cross-sectional area, and resistivity.

2010 Pearson Education, Inc.c

Review of Chapter 17
Power is the rate at which work is done.

2010 Pearson Education, Inc.c