Circuit Concepts And Analysis Techniques Flashcards
Review module one of Electrical Engineering (21 cards)
Current is…
The rate of flow of charges.
Voltage is…
The difference in potential energy of a charge between two points.
Power is…
A measure of energy transfer per second. It is calculated by multiplying current and voltage (charges per second x energy per charge = energy per second).
Resistance is…
A measure of how a material or component reduces the flow of energy through it.
A Resistor is…
An electronic component that adds a set amount of resistance between two points. Current is maintained between the two sides of a Resistor, but voltage drops.
Ohm’s Law is…
Voltage = Current x Resistance.
A law that denotes the relationship between current, resistance and voltage.
An electrical load is…
Any object or component that recieves electrical energy from a circuit. If the voltage and current drawn by a load are known it can be simplified to a Resistor for the purposes of analysis.
Kirchhoff’s Voltage law is…
That all the voltages either added to or subtracted from a circuit must sum to zero.
Kirchhoff’s Current Law states…
That all of the currents entering and leaving a node of a circuit must sum to zero.
An ideal current source is…
An idealised electrical component that maintains a set current across itself. It will supply or draw whatever energy it has to in order to maintain a set current.
Equivalent Resistance is…
A term for the process of working out the total resistance of a set of components, in either parallel or series, then replacing those components with a single Resistor of “Equivalent Resistance”. This can be done multiple times in order to simplify a circuit.
A parallel circuit…
Is one in which the both ends of a component (or set of components) meet at the same place as another component (or set of components).
Also known as a current divider.
A series circuit is…
One in which a component is attached to another through a single node with no other connections in between.
Also known as a voltage divider.
What is Voltage division?
In a series circuit, or series circuit loop the voltage is divided between the resistances porportionally based on the value of those resistances.
What is Current Division?
In a parallel circuit or a parellel circuit loop the current is divided amongst the branches, based on the inverse of the resistances of the branches.
What is conductance?
The conductance is the inverse of resistance and it describes how easy it is for power to flow through a circuit or circuit section.
What does it mean if two nodes are short circuited?
It simply means that the two nodes are connected either directly or by an ideal wire.
Are all circuits made of combinations of parallel and series circuit components?
No. There are circuits that have components in neither parallel or series. Which means these circuits cannot be simplified through voltage/current division.
What is Node-Voltage analysis?
A method of identifying the voltages at essential nodes about by using KCL and expressing the currents through those nodes in terms of their voltages.
What are the three steps of Node-Voltage Analysis?
- Select one essential node to act as the reference (ground) node.
- Write a KCL equation for every node afterwards in terms of the unknown essential node voltages.
- Solve fhd node-voltage equations simultaneously.
What is an essential node?
An essential node is a node in which three or more elements join.
