Unit 1: Electricity and Electronic Servicing Vocabulary

Vocabulary flashcards covering essential electrical concepts, physical laws, key figures, units, and servicing fundamentals from the Unit 1 TLE 10 notes.

Polarity

The directional flow of electrons from one pole to another, commonly used in electricity, magnetism, and electronic signaling.

Negative Polarity

The status assigned to an object or point (pole) that has relatively more electrons.

Positive Polarity

The status assigned to an object or point (pole) that has relatively fewer electrons.

Nucleus

The positively charged center of an atom that contains most of its mass and is composed of protons and neutrons.

Charles-Augustin de Coulomb

An eminent French physicist born on June 14, 1736, who formulated Coulomb's law and after whom the SI unit of electric charge is named.

Coulomb

The SI unit for electric charge (abbreviated 'C'), equal to the amount of charge from a current of one ampere flowing for one second, or the charge on $6.241 \times 10^{18}$ protons.

Insulators

Materials that present high resistance and do not conduct electricity in an electric field because they do not have free electrons, such as rubber, paper, glass, wood, and plastic.

Dielectrics

Insulator materials that do not allow current to flow but can be polarized in an electric field.

Coulomb's First Law

A law stating that like-charged objects repel each other and unlike-charged objects attract each other.

Coulomb's Second Law

A law stating that the force between two electrical charges is proportional to the product of the charges and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.

Count Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta

An Italian physicist (February 18, 1745 - March 5, 1827) who invented the first electric battery (Voltaic Cell or Voltaic Pile) and in whose honor the unit volt was named.

Voltage

The potential difference measuring how much energy is lost across a component, defined in Joules of electric potential energy lost per coulomb of charge ($V = \frac{W}{Q}$).

André-Marie Ampère

The scientist who discovered that current-carrying wires magnetically attract or repel each other, formulated Ampere's Law, proposed the particle recognized as the electron, discovered fluorine, and after whom the ampere is named.

Current

The flow of electrical charge carriers (usually electrons or electron-deficient atoms) through a medium, symbolized by uppercase letter $I$ and measured in amperes.

Conventional Current

The flow of current considered by physicists to move from relatively positive points to relatively negative points (also called Franklin current).

Resistance

A measure of the opposition to current flow in an electrical circuit, symbolized by $R$ and measured in ohms ($\Omega$).

Georg Simon Ohm

A German physicist (1784-1854) who studied the relationship between voltage, current, and resistance, and formulated Ohm's Law ($V = I \times R$).

Conductors

Materials that offer very little resistance and allow electrons to move easily, such as silver, copper, gold, and aluminum.

Conductance

An expression of the ease with which electric current flows through materials, symbolized by uppercase letter $G$, with the standard unit siemens ($S$) (formerly mho).

Electronics

A branch of engineering that studies and designs devices and systems controlling the flow of electrons through vacuum tubes, semiconductors, or conductors.

Electronic Servicing

The process of diagnosing, repairing, and maintaining electronic devices to keep them functioning correctly.

Troubleshooting

The process of finding the exact cause of a malfunction in an electronic device using tools like multimeters, oscilloscopes, and logic probes.

Calibration

The process of adjusting equipment to ensure it measures or operates within specified tolerances.

Documentation

The practice of recording details of servicing performed, including parts replaced, tests conducted, observations made, and calibration performed.

Systematic Troubleshooting

An organized, step-by-step method for finding the exact cause of a device's problem without relying on guessing or random actions.