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LESSON 2

BASIC ELECTRICAL COMPONENTS

OBJECTIVES

At the end of the lessons, the students should be able to:

1. Demonstrate the applications of Ohm’s law and Kirchoff’s laws.

2. Understand the use of resistors as voltage dividers.

3. Understand the effective equivalent circuits for basic devices connected in series and

parallel.

4. Understand the Wheatstone bridge

5. Understand the loading of instruments on sensing circuits

6. Understand the Impedances of capacitors and inductors

7. Apply the problem-solving methodology used in this Manual.

2.1 Resistor Formulas

The resistivity r of a material is the resistance to current flow between the

opposite faces of a unit cube of the material (ohm per unit length). The resistance R of a

component is expressed by

The variation of resistance with temperature is given by:

= (1 + )
Where: = resistance at temperature
= resistance at temperature
= temperature coefficient of resistance
= temperature difference between and
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Table 2.1 Resistivity of Some Common Materials

Example 1.

The emf across a 4.7-kΩ resistor is 9 V. How much current is flowing?

Ans. 1.9 mA

Example 2.

What is the dissipation in the resistor in Example 1?

Ans. 17.1 mW

Example 3.

Compare the energy loss of transmitting 5000 W of electrical power over power

lines with an electrical resistance of 10 Ω using a supply voltage of 5000 V and the loss

of transmitting the same power using a supply voltage of 1000 V through the same power

lines.

Ans. 250 W
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2.2 Resistor Combinations

Resistors can be connected in series, parallel, or a combination of both in a

resistor network.

Example 4.

What is the current flowing in the resistor network shown in Figure 2.1.

Ans. 0.244 mA

Example 5.

What is the value of across with respect to the negative battery terminal?

Figure 2.1

Ans. 5.8 V

Example 6.

What is the current flowing in the circuit shown in Figure 2.2, and what is the

equivalent value of the three parallel resistors?

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Figure 2.2
Ans. 3.25 mA, 3.08 kΩ

The Wheatstone bridge is the most common resistance network developed to

measure small changes in resistance and is often used in instrumentation with resistive

types of sensors. The bridge circuit is shown in Figure 2.3. Four resistors are connected

in the form of a diamond with the supply and measuring instrument forming the

diagonals. When all the resistors are equal the bridge is balanced, i.e., the voltage at A

and C are equal (E/2) and the voltmeter reads zero.

Figure 2.3
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If R2 is the resistance of a sensor whose change in value is being measured, the

voltage at A will increase with respect to C as the resistance value increases, so that the

voltmeter will have a positive reading. The voltage will change in proportion to any

changes in the value of R2, making the bridge very sensitive to small changes in

resistance. Abridge circuit can also be used to compensate for changes in resistance due

to temperature changes, i.e., if R1 and R2 are the same type of sensing element, such as a

strain gauge and reference strain gauge (see Figure 2.4). The resistance of each gauge

will change by an equal percentage with temperature, so that the bridge will remain

balanced when the temperature changes.

Figure 2.4

In many applications, the sensing resistor (R2) can be remote from a centrally

located bridge. In such cases the resistance of the leads can be zeroed out by adjusting the

bridge resistors. Any change in lead resistance due to temperature, however, will appear

as a sensor value change. To correct for this error, lead compensation can be used. This is

achieved by using three interconnecting leads as shown in Figure 2.5.

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Figure 2.5

Example 7.

The resistors in the bridge circuit shown in Figure are all 2.7 kΩ, except R1 which

is 2.2 kΩ. If E = 15 V what will the voltmeter read?

Ans. 8.26 V

2.3 Capacitance

2.3.1 Capacitor formulas

Capacitors store electrical charge, as opposed to cells where the charge is

generated by chemical action. Capacitance is a measure of the amount of charge that can

be stored. The capacitance of a capacitor is given by:

= /

Where: = capacitance in Farads (F)

= dielectric constant of the materials (F/m) between the plates
A = area of the plates ( )
d = distance between the plates (m)
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The dielectric constants of some common materials are given in Table. A 1-F

capacitor is defined as a capacitor that will store 1 C of charge when there is a voltage

potential of 1 V across the plates of the capacitor (a coulomb of charge is obtained when

a current of 1 A flows for 1 s). A farad is a very large unit and microfarad and picofarad

are the commonly used units.

Table 2.2 Dielectric Constants of Some Common Materials

Example 8.

What is the capacitance between two parallel plates whose areas are 1

separated by a 1-mm thick piece of dielectric with a dielectric constant of 5.5 × 10−9F/m?

Ans. 5.5

Example 9.

What is the ac current flowing in the circuit shown in Figure 2.6?

Figure 2.6
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Ans. 11.3 mA

Example 10.

What is the value of the capacitor that could be used to replace the capacitor

network shown in Figure 2.7?

Figure 2.7

Ans. 106.3 nF

2.4 Inductance

2.4.1 Inductor formula

Inductors are devices that oppose any change in the current flowing through them.

The inductance of a coil is given by:

=
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Where: = inductance in Henries

= number of turns of wire

= permeability of the core of the coil (H/m)

A = cross sectional area of the coil ( )

= length of the coil (m)

Example 11.

A coil with a diameter of 0.5 m and length 0.7 m is wound with 100
turns of wire, what is its inductance if the material of the core has a permeability of
7.5 × 10 / ?

Ans. 2.1 mH

Example 12.

What is the impedance to a 50-kHz sine wave of a 10-mH inductance?

Ans. 3.1 Ω
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Problem Set 2
Name: ______________________________________ Course & Section: ____________
Date: ____________
Instruction: Print this page and encircle the correct answer in the choices. Scan and
submit this in the link provided on or before September 27, 2022.
https://tinyurl.com/ee27ps2
1. A radio beacon transmits a frequency of 230 MHz. What is the wavelength of the
signals?

2. What is the power dissipation in a 68 Ω resistive load, when a 110-V (peak-to-peak)

sine wave is applied to the resistor?

3. The resistivity of a material used to make a round 950 Ω resistor is 53 Ω per unit
length. If the resistor has a radius of 0.16 in, what is it’s length?

4. A resistor with a temperature coefficient of 0.0045/°C has a resistance of 130 Ω at

20°C. At what temperature will the resistance be 183 Ω?

5. A dc voltage of 17 V is measured across a 133 Ω resistor. What is the current flowing

through the resistor?
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6. A dc voltage is applied to three resistors in parallel. The values of the resistors are
7.5, 12.5, and 14.8 kΩ . If the total current flowing is 2.7 mA, what is the applied
voltage?

7. The configuration of the three resistors in Prob. 6 is changed from a parallel to a

series connection. If the current flowing in the resistors is unchanged, what is the total
voltage across the three resistors?

8. What is the supply current It flowing in the circuit shown in Figure 1 (a)?

Figure 1 (a) Figure 1(b)

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9. Calculate the voltage across each of the resistors in Prob. 7. Does the result support
Kirchoff’s first law?

10. What is the current flowing in each of the resistors in Prob. 6? Does the result support
Kirchoff’s second law?

11. What is the voltage measured in the bridge circuit shown in Figure 1(b)

12. Two rectangular parallel plates 2.2 m by 3.7 m are separated by a material with a
dielectric constant of 4.8 x 10 F/m. If the capacitance between the plates is 4.3 F,
what is the separation of the plates?

13. A 3.2 nF capacitor has an impedance of 0.02 MΩ when an ac voltage is applied to it.
What is the frequency of the ac voltage?
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14. What is the value of a single capacitor that could be used to replace the capacitors
shown in Figure 2(a)?

Figure 2 (a) Figure 2 (b)

15. An inductor of 2.8 mH is being constructed on a core whose diameter is 1.4 cm and
length is 5.6 cm. If the permeability of the core is 4.7x 10 H/m, how many turns of
wire will be required?

16. What value of inductance would be used to replace the inductor network shown in
Figure 2(b)?