Unit 2

Single-Phase Circuits

 Intro to AC
Sinusoids
Phasors

Lecture Outline

 1834: First electric generator (DC) invented in

London
1878: Thomas Edison invented electric light run
on DC
Most factories and homes that use electricity
have on-site dynamos (DC generators)
expensive and noisy
Having a central plant for electricity generation
and power distribution is not practical because
DC not suitable for transmission over long
distances
Then somebody invented AC which has some
obvious advantages compared to DC

Introduction to AC circuits

Among EE on
whether AC or
DC is better

War of the Currents

The battle
began on the
late 1880s

General Electric Corp

Thomas Edison

AC is not
safe !!

DC came first
and simpler !!

Westinghouse Corp

Nikola Tesla

AC is more
efficient and
economical !!

War of the Currents (1890s)

AC !!

War of the Currents (1900)

DC direct current
Voltage & Current
Magnitude constant wrt
time
The current is always in
one direction.
DC circuit circuits
driven by constant
voltage or current
sources (e.g. battery)

DC vs AC
AC alternating current
Magnitude varies
sinusoidally wrt time.
The current changes
direction at certain
frequency.
AC circuits circuits
driven by AC voltage or
current sources (e.g. home
power supply, ac
generator)

 Voltages and currents in AC circuits are

normally expressed in sinusoidal form
Sinusoid is a signal that has the form of
the sine or cosine function
Circuits driven by this current / voltage
sources are called AC circuits

Sinusoid

 The nature is characteristically sinusoidal

i.e. ripples on the ocean surface, motion of a
pendulum, vibration of a spring, response of
2nd-order system, etc
Easy to generate and transmit, thus widely
used
Easy to handle mathematically i.e. derivative
or integral of a sinusoid is sinusoid
Through Fourier analysis, any practical
periodic signal can be represented by a sum
of sinusoids

Why Sinusoids?