Current Electricity & Magnetism - Key Concepts

Current Electricity & Magnetism Objectives

Key Concepts

  • SI units.
  • Slopes have physical significance like Voltage vs Current.
  • A circuit is a closed path with a potential difference, allowing current to exist.
  • Total current entering a junction equals the total current leaving.
  • Around any closed loop, the sum of potential drops equals the sum of potential increases.
  • Resistors in series: equivalent resistance is the sum of their values.
  • Resistors in parallel: equivalent resistance is less than any individual resistor.
  • Resistance is directly related to temperature, length, resistivity, and voltage, but indirectly related to cross-sectional area and current.
  • Ohm's Law: V=IRV=IR
  • Energy conversion between mechanical, electromagnetic, nuclear, and thermal forms.
  • Power is a rate.
  • Magnetic field lines go from North to South.
  • Moving electric charges produce magnetic fields.
  • Magnetic fields produce moving electric charges.
  • Magnetic forces can be attractive or repulsive.
  • Electricity is a form of energy transformed by moving electric charges doing work.
  • Electric fields provide the force that moves charged particles.