Resistance
An electron traveling through the wires and loads of the external circuit encounters resistance. Resistanceis the hindrance to the flow of charge. For an electron, the journey from terminal to terminal is not…
Electrical Resistance
Journey of a Typical Electron As mentioned in Lesson 1, an electrochemical cell supplies energy to move a charge from its low energy, low potential terminal to the high energy, high…
Common Misconceptions Regarding Electric Circuits
In these first two lessons of the Circuits unit of The Physics Classroom, an effort has been made to present a model of how and why electric charge flows within…
Power: Putting Charges to Work
Electric circuits are designed to serve a useful function. The mere movement of charge from terminal toterminal is of little use if the electrical energy possessed by the charge is not transformed…
Requirements of a Circuit
Suppose that you were given a small light bulb, an electrochemical cell and a bare copper wire and were asked to find the four different arrangements of the three items…
Electric Current
What is an Electric Circuit? In Lesson 1, the concept of electric potential difference was discussed. Electric potential is the amount of electric potential energy per unit of charge that would be…
Electric Potential Difference
In the previous section of Lesson 1, the concept of electric potential was introduced. Electric potential is a location-dependent quantity that expresses the amount of potential energy per unit of charge…
Electric Potential
In the previous section of Lesson 1, it was reasoned that the movement of a positive test charge within an electric field is accompanied by changes in potential energy. A gravitational…
Current Electricity
Electric Potential Difference Electric Field and the Movement of Charge Perhaps one of the most useful yet taken-for-granted accomplishments of the recent centuries is the development of electric circuits. The…
