Monday, February 2, 2009

Electric power

Electric power is defined as the rate at which electrical energy is transferred by an electric circuit. The SI unit of power is the watt.

Electrical power is distributed via cables and electricity pylons like these in Brisbane, Australia.

When electric current flows in a circuit, it can transfer energy to do mechanical or thermodynamic work. Devices convert electrical energy into many useful forms, such as heat (electric heaters), light (light bulbs),motion (electric motors), sound (loudspeaker) or chemical changes. Electricity can be produced mechanically by generation, or chemically, or by direct conversion from light in photovoltaic cells, also it can be stored chemically in batteries.Joule's law can be combined with Ohm's law (V = RI) to produce two more equations:

P = I2R,

and

P = \frac{V^2}{R},

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Electric field


In physics, the space surrounding an electric charge or in the presence of a time-varying magnetic fieldhas a property called an electric field (that can also be equated to electric flux density). This electric field exerts a force on other electrically charged objects. The concept of an electric field was introduced by Michael Faraday.

The electric field is a vector field with SI units of newtons per coulomb (N C−1) or, equivalently, volts permetre (V m−1). The SI base units of the electric field are kg•m•s-3•A-1.

Electromagnetism

Electric current produces a magnetic field. The magnetic field can be visualized as a pattern of circular field lines surrounding the wire.

Ohm's law


 Ohm's law predicts the current in an (ideal) resistor (or other ohmic device) to be the applied voltage divided by resistance:

 I = \frac {V}{R}

where

I is the current, measured in amperes
V is the potential difference measured in volts
R is the resistance measured in ohms

Drift velocity

  The drift velocity is the average velocity that a particle, such as an electron, attains due to an electric field. In general, an electron will rattle around in a conductor at the Fermi velocity randomly. An applied electric field will give this random motion a small net velocity in one direction

In a semiconductor, the two main carrier scattering mechanisms are ionized impurity scattering and lattice scattering.

Because current is proportional to drift velocity, which is, in turn, proportional to the magnitude of an external electric field, Ohm's law can be explained in terms of drift velocity.

Drift velocity is expressed in the following equations:

  • J_{\it drift} = \sigma \cdot v_{\it avg}, where Jdrift is the current density ,σ is charge density in units C/m3, and vavg is the average velocity of the carriers(drift velocity);
  • v_{\it avg} = \mu \cdot E, where μ is the electron mobility in m2/(V·s) and E is the electric field in V/m.

The drift speed of electric charges

  The mobile charged particles within a conductor move constantly in random directions, like the particles of a gas. In order for there to be a net flow of charge, the particles must also move together with an average drift rate. Electrons are the charge carriers in metals and they follow an erratic path, bouncing from atom to atom, but generally drifting in the direction of the electric field. The speed at which they drift can be calculated from the equation:

I=nAvQ \!\

where

I \!\  is the electric current
n \!\  is number of charged particles per unit volume
A \!\  is the cross-sectional area of the conductor
v \!\  is the drift velocity, and
Q \!\  is the charge on each particle.

Current density

 Current density is a measure of the density of an electric current. It is defined as a vector whose magnitude is the electric current per cross-sectional area. In SI units, the current density is measured in amperes per square meter.

Potential Difference

  It is defined as the amount of work done in moving a unit positive charge from one point to another against electric force.

Electric Current


    The current is defined as the rate of flow of charges across any cross sectional area of a conductor,.
 I=q/t
where,...q=charge,t=time.
And also its shortly defined as flow of free electrons...
 Unit:ampere