Basic concept of

CURRENT and VOLTAGE

2nd and 3rd class meeting.

Sigit Tri Wicaksono, Ph.D.

Did you ever been got electric

shock ???, how do you feel ???

Electrical current
Current

is a
measure of.
Current is
measured using
An ammeter is
always placed in
series in a circuit

Quantitatively,

current is the net rate of

charge crossing an area. Its units are
coulombs per second, which is given the
name ampere (A) after the French
physicist Andr Marie Ampre (1775
1836).
In electronics and biomedical applications,
currents are small enough that
milliamperes (mA) and microamperes are
widely used. When current I is steady or a
time average will do, we write

Aktor dibalik arus listrik

Elektron
Proton
Ion

Example

Current and Current Density: Through the Cell

Membrane
Ion channels are narrow pores that allow ions to pass through cell
membranes. A particular channel has a circular cross section 0.15 nm in
radius; it opens for 1 ms and passes 1.1 x 104 singly ionized potassium ions.
Find both the current and the current density in the channel.

Current is the rate of

charge passing
through a given area,
here the opening of an
ion channel. Equation
24.1a, determines the
current. Current
density, however, is
current per unit area,
which we can compute
from J= I/A

Current Conduction
Mechanism
1. Conductor Ohms
Law

2. Ionic solutions
Liquid solutions contain positive and negative ions that respond
to an electric field by moving in opposite directions, resulting in
a net current. Conductivity is limited by collisions between ions
and neutral atoms and, as Table 24.1 suggests, ionic solutions
are poorer conductors than metals. Ionic conduction is essential
to life, as the transport of ions through cell membranes in
Example 24.2 suggests. Electric eels use ionic conduction to
sense and kill their prey. Batteries and fuel cells use ionic
conduction, which also plays a role in the corrosion of metals.
And an ionic solutionsweatincreases our vulnerability to
electric shock.

3. Plasma
Plasma is ionized gas that conducts because it
contains free electrons and ions. It takes
substantial energy to ionize atoms, so plasmas
usually exist only at high temperatures. Plasmas
are rare on Earth; theyre in fluorescent lamps,
plasma TVs, neon signs, the ionosphere, flames,
and lightning flashes. Yet much of the universes
ordinary matter is in the plasma state; stars, in
particular, are mostly plasma.
The electric properties of plasma make it so
different from ordinary gas that plasma is often
called the fourth state of matter. Some
plasmaslike the Suns coronaare so diffuse
and therefore collisions so rare as to make them
far better conductors than metals.

4. Semi Conductor
Even in insulators, random thermal motions
dislodge a few electrons, giving these materials
very modest conductivity. In a few materials
notably the element siliconthis effect
is significant at room temperature. Such
materials have conductivities between those of
good insulators and metals, so theyre called
5. Super Conductor
semiconductors.
In 1911 the Dutch physicist H. Kamerlingh
Onnes found that the resistivity of mercury
dropped to zero at a temperature of 4.2 K.
Today we know thousands of substances that
become superconductors at sufficiently low
temperatures

Voltage / potential
difference

Voltage is a
measure of the
energy carried by
the current.
(Technically it is a
measure of the
difference in
energy between
two points hence
the name
potential
difference).

Keep in mind:
A car has a 12-V battery, means the battery does 12
Joules of work on every coulomb of charge that
moves between its terminals

Voltage / potential difference

Voltage

is
measured with a
voltmeter.
Voltmeters are
always placed in
parallel in a
circuit.

AC and DC current/voltage
AC current/voltage is
frequency dependent,
Indonesia has 220V, 50-60Hz
AC source, what it does
mean??
What about DC voltage???

A way to provide high efficiency, safe low

voltage:
step-up to 500,000 V
step-down,
back to 5,000 V

~5,000 Volts

step-down to 220 V

High Voltage Transmission Lines

Low Voltage to Consumers

Correlation between I and V

OHMS LAW
V = R . i (remember, F =
m.a)
KIRCHOFFS LAW
KCL

DISSIPASION ENERGY (Ohmic losses)

Current flow within a

conductor (close circuit)
always produce HEAT,
Explain !!!??

CASE STUDY...
Discuss the applications of basic
concept of current and voltage !!!