Electrical energy, current, and resistance

• Captatice - the ability to store  (F or farads)

  • The measure of how much charge can be stored with a given capacitor
  • Measure the strength of a capacitor.

  changing the battery in a circuit with a capacitor will not change its capacitance

  • Capacitance only depends on the physical aspects of the capacitor (size, distance) 

  The long and short sides of a capacitor represent the polarity
• Capacitor - stores electric charge, it cannot separate charge

  • Stores less charge but releases it more quickly
  • Stores electrical energy and releases it as electrical energy 
  • Consists of two metal plates with a dielectric (insulating material) between them
  • The capacitor reaches the same voltage as the battery used to charge it.
• Two types of capacitors are disk capacitors and electrolytic capacitors
• Dielectric - is an insulator between the plates of a capacitor, that allow it to hold more electric charge
• Battery - separates and stores an electrical charge 

  • Stores a chemical charge and releases it as chemical energy
  • Can store more charge but releases it slowly 
• Electric potential difference (potential difference)  - the difference in charges between negative and positive
• Gravitational potential energy (GPE) - the amount of energy stored in a mass given its location in its gravitational field. 
• Electric potential energy (PEe) - the amount of energy stored in a charge given its location in the electric field. 

  • Whenever a mass moves within a gravitational field, there is a change in the gravitational potential energy
  • Whenever an electric charge moves within an electric field, there is a change in the electric field.
• Electric potential - the amount of energy 1C of charge contains 
• Electric current (I) - the flow of charged particles, usually electrons

  • How much charge moves past a given area each second?
  • Similar to water flowing through a pipe
• Voltage (V) - electric pressure that pushes electrons through a wire

  • Measure of the amount of energy given to electrons
• Resistance - the opposition to the flow of electric charge (electrons)  

  • Changing this will inversely change the current, Units - ohms 
  • Resistor color code - method for marking the value of the resistance on the part. The first ring tells you the first digit of the resistor value. The second ring tells you the second digit of the resistor value. The third rig tells you the number of zeros. The fourth right represents the construction tolerance  (gold =5%)
• Variable resistor -  a resistor of which the electric resistance value can be adjusted.
• Electric power (P) - the rate at which electrical energy is changed into some other form 
• Series - one after another (Cricut), draws less current (R1 + R2 + R3)
• Parallel - side by side (Cricut), draws more current, adding more resistors will lessen the overall resistance.
• Ohm's law - I= q/t  Amperes or A
• Wire - allow electricity to pass through 
• Battery - to create electrical charge across the wire
• Voltage - how the electric charge is stored in the battery
• The resistor - used to limit or stop the flow of electricity 
• Breadboard- connects all the parts 
• Transmitter - is like a current amplifier. It uses a small amount of current to control a large amount of current

  • The base is the gate controller device for the larger electrical supply. 
  • The collector is the larger electrical supply.
  • The emitter is the outlet for that supply.
• Potential difference - will directly change the current 
• Electrons carry the charge in a wire
• Current is referred to as water
• Watts (W) - unit for power
• Unit for a charge - coulomb's or C
• Short circuit - when electrical components touch when they are not supposed to
• An LED has polarity but it is not a capacitor
• schematic diagram - shows the parts of a circuit and how they are connected