Electricity 2024

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12.

ELECTRICITY

12.1 ELECTRIC CURRENT AND CIRCUIT


• A continuous and closed path of an electric current is called an electric circuit
• How do we express electric current?
• Electric current is expressed by the amount of charge flowing through a particular area in
unit time. (Rate of flow of electric charges)
• Conventionally, in an electric circuit, the direction of electric current is taken as opposite to
the direction of the flow of electrons, which are negative charges.
• If a net charge Q, flows across any cross-section of a conductor in time t, then the current I,
through the cross-section is : ( Q= ne , n- number of electrons , e-charge of one electron )
!
I= "

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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

COMBINATION OF RESISTORS IN A CIRCUIT

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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.

Advantages of parallel connection:


1. A parallel circuit divides the current through the electrical gadgets. The total resistance in a parallel circuit
is decreased due to which current from the power supply is high
2. Each gadget which has a different resistance can draw the required amount of current to operate properly.
3. Each appliance will have an independent switch, so it can be operated independently
4. When one appliance is switched off, the other devices keep working normally.

HEATING EFFECT OF ELCTRIC CURRENT


• The effect of electric current due to which heat is produced in a wire when current is passed through it is
called heating effect of current or Joule heating.
• Consider a current I flowing through a resistor of resistance R. Let the potential difference across it be V
.Let t be the time during which a charge Q flows across.
• The power input into the circuit by source is


• 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

Applying Ohm’s law, H = I2 Rt . This is known as Joule’s law of heating.


• The law implies that heat produced in a resistor is directly proportional to
(i) the square of current for a given resistance,
(ii) the resistance for a given current, and
(iii) the time for which the current flows through the resistor.
® Practical Applications of Heating Effect of Electric Current
1. The electric laundry iron, electric toaster, electric oven, electric kettle an electric heater are some
of the familiar devices based on Joule’s heating
2. Electric bulb: Here, the filament must retain as much of the heat generated as is possible, so that
it gets very hot and emits light. It must not melt at such high temperature. A strong metal with
high melting point such as tungsten (melting point 3380°C) is used for making bulb filaments.
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The filament should be thermally isolated as much as possible, using insulating support, etc. The
bulbs are usually filled with chemically inactive nitrogen and argon gases to prolong the life of
filament
3. Electric fuse protects circuits and appliances by stopping the flow of any unduly high electric
current.
ü The fuse is placed in series with the device.
ü The electric fuse consists of a piece of wire made of a metal or an alloy of appropriate melting
point, for example aluminium, copper, iron, lead etc. The fuse wire is usually encased in a
cartridge of porcelain or similar material with metal ends
Mechanism of action: If a current larger than the specified value flows through the circuit, the
temperature of the fuse wire increases. This melts the fuse wire and breaks the circuit..
The fuses used for domestic purposes are rated as 1 A, 2 A, 3 A, 5 A, 10 A, etc. For an electric iron
which consumes 1 kW electric power when operated at 220 V, a current of (1000/220) A, that is,
4.54 A will flow in the circuit. In this case, a 5 A fuse must be used.

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)

Calculation of the cost of electrical energy consumed:

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