Electricity
Electricity has an important place in modern society. It is a controllable
and convenient form of energy for a variety of uses in homes, schools,
hospitals, industries and so on. What constitutes electricity? How does
it flow in an electric circuit? What are the factors that control or regulate
the current through an electric circuit? In this Chapter, we shall attempt
to answer such questions. We shall also discuss the heating effect of
electric current and its applications.
ELECTRIC CURRENT AND CIRCUIT
Electric current is expressed by
the amount of charge flowing through a particular area in unit time. In
other words, it is the rate of flow of electric charges. In circuits using
metallic wires, electrons constitute the flow of charges. However, electrons
were not known at the time when the phenomenon of electricity was first
observed. So, electric current was considered to be the flow of positive
charges and the direction of flow of positive charges was taken to be the
direction of electric current. 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 I/Q
t
The SI unit of electric charge is coulomb (C), which is equivalent to
the charge contained in nearly 6 × 1018 electrons. (We know that an
electron possesses a negative charge of 1.6 × 10–19 C.) The electric
current is expressed by a unit called ampere (A), named after the
French scientist, Andre-Marie Ampere (1775–1836). One ampere is
constituted by the flow of one coulomb of charge per second, that is,
1 A = 1 C/1 s. Small quantities of current are expressed in milliampere
(1 mA = 10–3 A) or in microampere (1 µA = 10–6 A).
An instrument called ammeter measures electric
current in a circuit. It is always connected in series
in a circuit through which the current is to be
measured. Figure 12.1 shows the schematic
diagram of a typical electric circuit comprising a
cell, an electric bulb, an ammeter and a plug key.
Note that the electric current flows in the circuit
from the positive terminal of the cell to the negative
terminal of the cell through the bulb and ammeter.
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