Alternating Current and Direct Current

ALTERNATING CURRENT
• Alternating current (AC) is an electric current
which periodically reverses direction, in
contrast to direct current (DC) which flows
only in one direction.
• Alternating current (AC) is an electric current which
periodically reverses direction, in contrast to direct current
(DC) which flows only in one direction. Alternating current
is the form in which electric power is delivered to
businesses and residences, and it is the form of electrical
energy that consumers typically use when they plug
kitchen appliances, televisions and electric lamps into a
wall socket. A common source of DC power is a battery
cell in a flashlight. The abbreviations AC and DC are often
used to mean simply alternating and direct, as when they
modify current or voltage.
EXAMPLES OF ALTERNATING CURRENT

• The usual waveform of alternating current in most electric

power circuits is a sine wave. In certain applications,
different waveforms are used, such as triangular or
square waves. Audio and radio signals carried on
electrical wires are also examples of alternating current.
DIRECT CURRENT
• Direct current or DC electricity is the continuous
movement of electrons from negative to positive through a
conducting material such as a metal wire. A DC circuit is
necessary to allow the current or steam of electrons to
flow. In a circuit, the direction of the current is opposite the
flow of electrons.
EXAMPLES OF DIRECT CURRENT
• The best real-life example
of direct current is a
battery. Batteries have
positive (+) and negative (-
) terminals. If you take a
wire and connect the
positive and
negativeterminals on a
battery, the electrons in
the wires will begin to flow
to produce a current.
DIRECT CURRENT DISCOVERY
• Direct current was produced in 1800 by Italian physicist
Alessandro Volta's battery, his Voltaic pile.[5] The nature of how
current flowed was not understood. French physicist André-Marie
Ampère conjectured that current travelled in one direction from
positive to negative.[6] When French instrument maker Hippolyte
Pixii built the first dynamo electric generator in 1832, he found that
as the magnet used passed the loops of wire each half turn, it
caused the flow of electricity to reverse, generating an alternating
current.[7] At Ampère's suggestion, Pixii later added a
commutator, a type of "switch" where contacts on the shaft work
with "brush" contacts to produce direct current.
First Direct Current Transmission
• Brush Electric Company's central power plant with
dynamos generating direct current to power arc lamps for
public lighting in New York. Beginning operation in
December 1880 at 133 West Twenty-Fifth Street, the high
voltages it operated at allowed it to power a 2-mile (3.2
km) long circuit.
• What is the advantage of AC and DC?
• The major advantage that AC electricity has over DC
electricity is that AC voltages can be readily transformed
to higher or lower voltage levels, while it is difficult to do
that with DC voltages. Since high voltages are more
efficient for sending electricity great distances, AC
electricity has an advantage over DC.
QUESTIONS ?
THE END