In an electric circuit positive charges move spontaneously towards regions of lower potential, giving up energy; a generator carries them back up to the starting level by supplying energy from outside, while along the way the resistance converts electrical energy into heat. It is the same story as a hydraulic circuit: the generator is the pump, the resistor is the narrow pipe, the current is the flow of water. This chapter builds, piece by piece, the model of circuits: current and Ohm’s law, the battery and its electromotive force, resistor networks, measuring instruments, Kirchhoff’s laws, the energy balance, capacitors and finally semiconductors and superconductors.
Sections
- Electric current
- Ohm’s law
- The battery: electromotive force
- Resistances in series and in parallel
- Electrical measuring instruments
- Kirchhoff’s laws
- Energy and power in circuits
- Wheatstone bridge
- Infinite ladder circuits
- Energy balance of circuits
- Capacitors in circuits
- Semiconductors and superconductors