Electricity 2024
Electricity 2024
Electricity 2024
ELECTRICITY
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Why are alloys like nichrome used in electrical heating devices, like electric iron, toasters
etc?
1. The resistivity of an alloy is generally higher than that of its constituent metals.
2. Alloys do not oxidize (burn) readily at high temperatures.
Tungsten is used almost exclusively for filaments of electric bulbs. Why?
1. It has very high resistance, so a large amount of electrical energy can be converted into a
large amount of heat energy, so gets very hot and emits light
2. High melting point [ 3380oC], becomes red hot without melting
3. It does not get oxidized easily even at high temperatures.
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How is resistance different from resistivity?
1. Resistance of wire changes on changing the length and area of the cross-section of the
conductor while the resistivity of a material is independent of these two factors
2. Resistance is the property of a material due to which it opposes the flow of current, while
resistivity is the resistance offered by the 1m length of a wire whose cross-sectional area is 1m2
3. SI unit of resistance is Ohm, while that of resistivity is Ohm-metre.
A piece of wire is drawn by pulling it until its length is doubled. Compare the new resistance
with the original value.
The volume of the wire remains same in both cases. Volume = Area of cross section x length Original
Resistance
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Disadvantages of a series connection of electrical gadgets:
1. Appliances that need currents of widely different values to operate properly (like an electric bulb and
heater) cannot be connected in series, since in a series circuit the current is constant throughout the
electric circuit.
2. When one component fails the circuit is broken and none of the components works.
•
• Energy supplied to the circuit by the source in time t is P × t, that is, VIt.
Energy gets dissipated in the resistor as heat. H = VIt
ELECTRIC POWER: The rate at which electrical energy is consumed or dissipated in an electric
circuit is called electric power.
The S.I. unit of electric power ‘watt’ which is denoted by the letter W. The power of 1 watt is a
rate of working of 1 joule per second.
A bigger unit of electric power is kilowatt.
1 kilowatt (kW) = 1000 watt
Since electrical energy is the product of power and time, the unit of electric energy is, therefore,
watt hour (W h). One watt hour is the energy consumed when 1 watt of power is used for 1
hour.
The commercial unit of electric energy is kilowatt hour (kW h), commonly known as ‘unit’.
1 kW h = 1000 watt × 3600 second
= 3.6 × 106 watt second
= 3.6 × 106 joule (J)
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