week #2 Flashcards
What are the 2 basic types of electrical sources?
A: direct current / alternating current
Which of the 2 different types of electrical sources is considered unidirectional?
direct current
Which type of electrical source does the battery that starts our cars use? What is the most common car battery Voltage
DC, 12 V
The receptacles and lights in our homes and schools uses which type of electrical source? What is the Voltage used?
AC 120V
What is electricity?
Electricity is the flow of negatively charged electrons
What is the basic building block of the universe known as?
The Atom
What is a substance that cannot be chemically divided into two or more simpler substances?
Element
Elements are composed from what?
Atoms
What are the three principle parts of an atom?
Proton Neutrons and electrons
What is the nucleus of the atom composed of
Protons and Neutrons
Does the nucleus of an atom have a negative charge?
No the charge is positive
What does the basic law of physics state about charges?
Opposite charges attract and like charges repel
Will atoms with the same electrical charge repel each other?
Yes
The electrons located in the outer shell of an atom are known as what type of electrons?
Valence electrons
Good conductors generally contain how many valance electrons?
1 to 3
Semi-conductors generally contain how many valance electrons?
4
Insulators are known to be very poor conductors of electricity, how many valance electrons do elements known as insulators contain?
7-8
List 2 examples of good insulators.
Wood and glass, rubber plastic
List 2 examples of conductors?
Copper, and aluminum.
Electrical wire uses both a good conductor and a good insulator. Can you explain why?
The good conductor allows for the ease of flow of electrons and is wrapped with an insulator to prevent any electrical leakage—for example dead shorts, ground shorts, and electrocution.
A quantity measurement of 6,250,000,000,000,000,000 is known to as what?
Coulomb
What is the standard name used to describe the amount of electricity flowing through a circuit?
Ampere
If 15 coulombs of electricity flow past a point in the wire in one second, how many amps are there? Make sure you indicate with the symbol!
15 A
When calculating for ampacity using algebraic formulas, our text book uses what letter to indicate ampacity?
I