Chp 7 Mains electricity

Wires
live: provides the path along which the electrical energy from the power station travels. This wire is alternately positive and negative causing alternating current. neutral: completes the circuit earth: usually has no current flowing through. Protect you if an appliance develops a fault.

Using electricity safely

Electricity is very useful but it can be dangerous if it is not used safely. e.g water should be also kept away from sockets and you must never use electrical equipment with wet hands.

Safety devices
fuse: contain a thin piece of wire made from a metal that has a low melting point. If too large a current flows through the fuse blows, circuit cut. These can prevent you getting a shock and reduce the possibility of an electric fire. The fuse must replace with a new one before the appliance can be used again. circuit breakers: large current flows, the switch opens making the circuit incomplete. Once the switch is reset, by pressing a reset button. There is no need for the switch or circuit breaker to be replaced. double insulation: use a two-wire flex.(no need for a earth wire) switch: if the switch is opened, no electric energy can passed through.

Electrical power
power measured in watts energy= power x time power= current x voltage

Heating effect
As current passes through the element, energy is transferred and the element heats up.

Alternating Current and Direct Current (AC and DC)

You should be able to understand the difference between alternating electrical power supplies, like?? Supply in this country, and direct supplies like batteries. A battery makes electricity flow in one direction continuously, with electricity flowing in one direction then the other: this is alternating current

Chp 8 Electric Charge

Conductors and Insulators
Materials that conduct electricity well are known as conductors. They are usually metallic, copper and gold are very good conductors of electricity. Materials that do not conduct electricity are called insulators. These are usually non-metallic: rubber, glass and many types of plastic do not conduct electricity. Cut wood, when dry, may also be considered to be an insulator.

Charges within an atom

The atom is made up of neutrons and protons, which together make up the nucleus of the nucleus is surrounded by fast moving electrons.

Charging material by friction

Insulating materials can be given an electric charge by rubbing them.

Force between charge and uncharged objects

If you rub a balloon vigorously on a dry jumper it will become charged and you may be wall. The wall surface is likely to be insulating and will also be uncharged( all protons exactly the have same number of electrons). You can show that a charged object will always be attracted by the object . -electrons can move freely throughout the whole of the metal object, so an induced charged of the sign is always produced nearest to the charging object. -the electrons are vicinity of their particular nucleus, but the way the charge is distributed around the atom is one side of each atom being slightly more positive than the other. Gold leaf electroscope: an instrument for detecting electric charge

Use of static electricity

inkjet printers: charging in droplets in the inkjet printers allows the droplets (selenium)to be direct places on the paper by deflection them between charged plates. photocopiers: a statically charged drum is exposed to light, reflected from the documents which discharges the drum everywhere except where the dark prints does not reflect light. The parts of the drum attract the tones which are then transferred to toner particles to the printing paper. paint spraying: the tiny droplets of paint are given a static charge and the object to be paint is connected to a supply of opposite charge. This causes the paint droplets to be attracted to the painted and the amount of paint wasted is drastically reduced.

electrostatic precipitators: the small particles of soot and other dust particles in burning material are given a static charge and are then passed through a highly charged grid which removed dust particles, stopping them from escaping into the atmosphere.

Problem with static electricity

electric shock: cars become charged with static electricity, particularly on dry days, and can give an unpleasant shock when someone touches the car. This also happens while walking on acrylic carpets Fuelling tankers and aircraft: When fuelling it is possible for static charge to build up on planes or tankers and, should a spark occur, a fire or explosion could result. This is prevented by ensuring that the tanker or plane is electrically earthed to discharge them. Handling microprocessors and computer chips: workers handling electronic components must take care not to become charged by statics as this can easily destroy expensive components. They wear earthling straps and work on earthed metal benches to prevent this.

Chp 9 Current and Voltage in circuits Conductor, insulators and electric current
Metals are good conductors of electricity because they have large numbers of free electrons, these electrons that are not bond to any particular atom in the structure of the metal, they are free to move random throughout the metal. When a voltage is applied across a metal wire, an electric force acts on electrons causing them to drift in the direction of this electric force. As the electrons carry negative electric charge, this results in a movement of charge along the wire.

Electric current
is the rate of flow of electric charge through a conductor. Electric charge is measured in coulombs(unit symbol. C.) current in amps=charge in coulombs Q Time in seconds measuring current: ammeter Ixt

Voltage
electron pumps-transferred energy to charges. The voltage across each component tells us how much energy it is converting. measuring voltage: voltmeter. Series and parallel circuits simple single loop type of circuit is called a series circuit. circuits that have braches or junctions are called parallel circuits(there is more than one path that current can flow along)

Chp 10 Electrical Resistance

Resistance:
When a voltage is connected across an electric current flows through the wire. for metal wires, the current varied in proportion to the voltage provided the ways. voltage= current x resistance V IxR Fixed resistor: included in a circuit in order to control the sizes of currents and voltages variable resistor: possible to alter their resistance(e.g volume of hi-fi,television) special resistor( thermistor) resistor whose resistance changes quite dramatically with temperature. Made from semiconducting material such as sislicon . -use in fire alarms and thermostats. Light-dependent resisotrs(LDRs) in dark condition, contains few free electrons and so have a hign resisitance. light shone onto an LDR more electrons are freed and the resistance decrease. used in light sensitive circuit in devices : photographic equipment, automatic lighting controls and burglar alarms Diodes: special resistors that behave like one-way valves or one-way streets. -current flows in one direction it can do so quite easily, but in the other direction the diode has a very high resistance and very little current can flows through. used in Light emitting diodes (LEDs)

Measuring resistance and ohms law

-straight line graph passing through the origin. ohms law: the relationship between the voltages across a component and the current that flows through it.