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Chapter 3: Circuits
November 2017
Contents
3 Circuits 2
3.1 Currents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
3.1.1 Defining Current . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
3.1.2 Resistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
3.1.3 Ohm’s Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3.1.4 Electric Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3.2 DC Circuits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3.2.1 A Word on Batteries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3.2.2 Series . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.2.3 Parallel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.2.4 Kirichnoff’s Laws . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.2.5 Capacitors and Circuits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.2.6 RC Circuits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.3 Practice Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1
Chapter 3
Circuits
3.1 Currents
3.1.1 Defining Current
Last unit we discussed how a Capacitor is charged by connecting wires between its Parallel Plates and a
battery. When that happens, electrons flow from the battery to the Capacitor and back. This thus captures
the notion of Current – literally electron flow.
Definition 3.1.1 (Electric Current). A certain amount of electrons flow through a wire given time ∆T such
that
∆Q
I= ,
∆T
where I is Current.
The unit for current is Ampere (A = C/s) and only flows in closed circuits (fully connected) – open
circuits (with a break in them) fail. This introduces an interesting point to consider – Current is conceptually
understood as electrons flowing (−) → (+) (Electron Flow), but it’s described as positive particles flowing
(+) → (−). (Conventional Current) It doesn’t impact calculations significantly, but it’s important to
remember.
3.1.2 Resistance
How fast water flows in a river depends many things, namely how wide the river is, how long that river is,
and how smooth the riverbed is (the smoother the faster). This has cross-applications over to current, which
can be viewed as a river for electrons (of sorts). This thus defines a Current’s resistance, how difficult it is
for electrons to flow in a current.
Definition 3.1.2 (Resistance). A wire’s characteristics determine how hard it is for atoms to flow, such
that
ρL
R= ,
A
where R is the wire’s resistance, ρ is the wire material’s Resistivity Constant and A is the wire’s area.
The unit for Resistance is the Ohm (Ω = V /I, see Section 3.1.2). Conceptually, wires with higher
resistance means electrons will bump into the interior more often, hence literally slowing down the electron
flow. It’s also good to know that temperature impacts resistivity, notably that higher temperatures decrease
resistance.
2
CHAPTER 3. CIRCUITS 3
Battery R
3.2 DC Circuits
3.2.1 A Word on Batteries
In AP Physics 1, batteries were abstracted out as VT . However, that’s not exactly the case, especially since
they have their own resistance. The basic idea is that the circuit’s voltage (i.e. VT ) is less than the battery’s
provided voltage.
Definition 3.2.1. Let E represent the battery’s source of electromotive force (emf ), the provided voltage.
Let r represent battery B’s internal resistance to the circuit’s current. Let VT be less than E, such that 2
VT = E − Ir,
where I is the current.
1 analogous to velocity’s distance/time
2V is listed in the textbook, and that is also good.
ab
CHAPTER 3. CIRCUITS 4
3.2.2 Series
There are two major types of circuits covered in AP Physics, the first being Series Circuits. Its main
characteristic is that all of its resistors run through a single branch of current, as shown in Figure 3.2.
R R
VT
As depicted in Figure 3.2, there is one current flow for all resistors. This introduces the Series Circuit’s
first property.
Theorem 3.2.1. Current is constant throughout a Series Circuit.
Inet = In ,
Vnet = ΣVn ,
Req = ΣRn ,
3.2.3 Parallel
A Parallel Circuit, on the other hand, separates branches for each resistor, as seen in Figure 3.3.
VT
Figure 3.3 also illustrates that V is constant to the left and right of the resistors – that is, the number of
branches of Current doesn’t impact the Voltage drop. This introduces the Parallel Circuit’s first property.
CHAPTER 3. CIRCUITS 5
Theorem 3.2.4. A Parallel Circuit’s Voltage is constant throughout the entire circuit.
VT = Vn ,
where n represents each resistor.
Additionally, it is clearly seen that the branches of Current in Figure 3.3 eventually merge back to one
branch. This introduces an additional property.
Theorem 3.2.5. A Parallel Circuit’s Current is composed of its constituents.
Inet = ΣIn ,
where In represents the Current at each resistor.
Theorem 3.2.5 can in turn be rewritten (referencing Figure 3.3) as
Inet = I1 + I2
And in turn using Ohm’s Law,
V V V
= +
REQ R1 R2
1 1 1
= + ,
REQ R1 R2
thus yielding our last Primary Circuit Property.
Theorem 3.2.6. A Parallel Circuit’s Resistance decreases per each additional resistor.
1 1
=Σ
REQ Rn
3.2.6 RC Circuits
A very common scenario of circuit is RC Circuit, where a circuit includes a capacitor and a resistor, as in
Figure 3.4. There’s a couple key things to know about the capacitor’s behavior in the circuit.
1. When t = 0, the capacitor acts like a regular wire. Assuming the the capacitor has not accrued
any charge yet, (most questions operate with this given) no resistance has been generated.
2. When t = +∞, the capacitor acts like an open circuit. As the capacitor approaches full charge,
its resistance gradually increases until it becomes essentially ∞. (Compared to the wire’s resistance).
Because of that, current can’t flow through the capacitor, hence the open circuit. This, by extension,
means the Current gradually decreases to 0. This does not mean, however, that the Voltage becomes
0. The voltage difference is still there – it’s just that current no longer flows.
3. The capacitor’s voltage VC gradually matches E. Initially VC increases rapidly, until gradually
leveling off at E.
These observations hence form the basis for Definitions 3.2.6 and 3.2.7.4
E C
Definition 3.2.6. Given capacitor C in a circuit, its voltage VC initially increases rapidly, but as t → +∞,
VC levels off at E. This is expressible as
VC = E(1 − e−t/RC ),
where E is the battery’s EMF, e is Euler’s number, t is time, and RC (Resistance × Capacitance) is the
time constant (τ ), a measure of how fast a capacitor charges.
Definition 3.2.7. Given capacitor C in a circuit, the circuit’s current at the capacitor initially decreases
rapidly, but eventually levels off and approaches 0. This is a exponential decay relationship expressible as
VR E
I= = e−t/RC ,
R R
where R is the resistor’s resistance, and VR is the resistor’s voltage, expressible in another exponential decay
relationship as
VR = Ee−t/RC .
The textbook has a more in-depth mathematical overview of the relationships.
ρ × 21 L ρL
R2 = 2 = 2 × 2 = 2R.
1
π 2r πr
The answer is thus B. The important thing to note is that R was treated as an initial value. The goal for
these kinds of problems is to express the desired changes in terms of the initial value.
Question 3.3.4 and 3.3.5 relate to Figure 3.5.
Problem 3.3.4. What is the current I1 ?
a) 0.8mA b) 1.0mA c) 2.0mA d) 3.0mA e) 6.0mA
Solution. This problem highlights one method to solve circuit problems: reduce the circuit to a single resistor
and work backwards. We first begin by finding REQ , for which we’ll need to use both Series and Circuit
properties.
1 1 1
= +
R23 2000Ω 6000Ω
R23 = 1500Ω
REQ = R1 + R23 = 2500Ω + 1500Ω = 4000Ω
CHAPTER 3. CIRCUITS 8
R2 = 2000Ω
I2
R1 = 2500Ω
R3 = 6000Ω
I3
I1
E = 12V