Electricity Flashcards
(26 cards)
What is Electricity
Electricity describes phenomena that arise from the presence and flow of electric charge
What are the two most familiar forms of electricity?
Static Electricity
Current Electricity
What are the two laws used to explain electric phenomena?
1) Opposite Charges attract and like charges repel
2) Only electrons do the Moving
What is Static Electricity?
Static electricity is when electrons become stuck on a object
When does static electricity occur?
When the object in question is an isolator (i.e, rubber, glass, paper, wood, plastic, cloth)
What do electrons want to do?
The electrons are always trying to where they came from.If givin a path they will always take it (the path must be a conductor )
What is the process of discharging an object called?
It is called Grounding. It because excess charges ultimately end up in the ground/earth
What are the three methods of charging objects with static electricity
Friction
Induction
Conduction
What is current electricity
Current electricity is the moving of electricity; the flow of electrons
We are heavily dependant on current electricity as it has more used then static electricity
What is electricity controlled by?
Electricity is highly controlled through paths called circuits
What are the 4 basic components of all circuits?
Source of energy
Electrical load
Connectors
What are the two types of circuit
Series Circuit
Parallel Circuit
What is a series circuit?
This type of circuit is connected in such a way that there is 1 path for electricity to flow. If there is a break anywhere in the circuit, the whole thing shuts down
What is a parallel circuit?
These are circuits that are connected in such a way that there are multiple paths for electricity to flow, This means that a break in the circuit doesn’t necessarily mean the whole thing will shut down. It depends on where the break is
Complex circuits are…
A mix of series and parallel circuit
What are cells?
Electrochemical cells (and batteries) use a combination of some chemical (typically acid) and two different types of metals to separate charge
When the two metals submerge in the chemical, a chemical reaction occurs forcing one to steal electrons from the other.
One becomes positive the other negative
This produces a voltage which pushes electrons
What are Fuses?
Fuses are a simple safety device that prevents current from reaching a dangerous level?
What are circuit breakers?
A circuit breaker has the same job as a fuse but uses a bi-metalilic strip instead of a wire with a low melting point
Metals expand when they are heated
Metals expand at different speeds
When the bi-metallic strip is heated, it bends, opening the circuit
What is current
A measure of electron flow
Measured in Amps
The more charge moving past a single point per second, the higher the current
Current = Charge / Time
What are the two types of current?
Alternating Current (AC) the current switched direction many times per second
Direct Current (DC) the current travel in one direction
What is voltage ?
Its a measurement of how much charge separation there is
Measured in Volts (V)
More separation means…
more capacity (Potential to work)
What is voltage also known as?
electro-motive force (E.M.F)
What are Resistors?
Resistors slow the flow of electrons
This is measured in resistance
resistance is the measure of OMHS (Ω)
resistance is needed for our devices
