so this video is for those of you who

want to get an introduction into

electronics

so one of the first components that

we're going to talk about is resistors

because

typically you'll find them in almost

every electronic circuit

resistors are designed to limit the

amount of current flowing

in the circuit and you could calculate

the amount of current flowing in a

circuit using ohm's law

v equals ir v stands for voltage

measured in volts i represents the

current measured in amps

r is the resistance measured in ohms

the current flowing through a resistor

is the voltage across the resistor

divided by the resistance itself so

let's say we have a battery

attached to a resistor the long side is

the positive terminal of the battery

the short side is the negative terminal

of the battery

let's use a 12 12v battery

conventional current is going to flow

from the positive terminal of the

battery

through the resistor back to the

negative terminal of the battery

conventional current flows from a high

potential to a low potential

but in actuality electrons flow

in the other direction from the negative

terminal to the positive terminal

so that's really what's happening in the

circuit electrons are the charged

currents they're the ones that are

moving

through the metallic conductor

but now let's make a table that shows

the relationship between resistance

and current so let's say

the resistance is 3 ohms using this

formula

if we take 12 volts divided by 3 ohms

we're going to get a current of 4 amps

now what if we increase the resistance

let's say from 3 ohms to 6 ohms what's

going to be the current

well using the same formula if we divide

12 volts

by 6 ohms we're going to get 2 amps

and so note what note the relation

between resistance and current

if we increase the resistance in a

circuit

the current decreases and so

we could use this device to control

the amount of current that is flowing in

a circuit

if you want to increase the current you

can decrease the resistance

if you wish to decrease the current

increase the resistance

now sometimes you may need to decide

what resistor to use in a circuit

and one important consideration that you

need to take into account

is the power rating of a resistor

so let's say we have a battery attached

to resistor

and let's say this is a 100 ohm resistor

and the power rating is one half watts

power is equal to voltage times current

it's also equal to the square of the

current times the resistance and it's

equal to v squared over r

so you could use any one of those three

formulas to calculate power

now this is important because

if you apply too much power to a

resistor or too much voltage

the resistor can burn up it can get hot

and

that could create a lot of problems so

you need to control

how much power you

deliver to a resistor because it can

only dissipate so much without damaging

itself and other

nearby components so what we're going to

do in this example

is given the resistance and the power

rating

of the resistor what is the maximum

voltage that we should apply

across this resistor so we're going to

use

this formula

p is equal to v squared over r

now because we're solving for v we're

going to rearrange the equation

i'm going to multiply both sides by r so

i get v

squared is equal to the power times the

resistor

taking the square root of both sides

we get the formula to calculate the

maximum voltage that should be applied

across the resistor

so v is equal to the square root of p

times

r so here we have a one half watt

resistor and the resistance

is 100 ohms so half of a hundred

is 49 and the square root

i mean it's 50 well half of a hundred is

not 49

it's 50.

but you know what it is easy to take the

square root of 49 that's 7.

so if you want to get a ballpark of your

answer you know it's close to 7.

the square root of 50 is about

7.07 volts

so that is the maximum voltage that

should be applied across this resistor

if you don't want it to overheat now the

next thing that we need to talk about

is how you can connect multiple

resistors together

if you wish to increase the resistance

in a circuit

you want to add resistors in series

because the total resistance of

resistors connected in series

is the sum of each individual resistor

so the more resistors that you add the

greater the total resistance will be

in a parallel circuit the more resistors

you add in parallel to each other

the total resistance actually goes down

to calculate the total resistance you

can use this formula it's one

over r one plus one over r two

plus one over r three raised to the

minus one

and i'm going to give you an example of

that shortly

but right now i want you to understand

something in a series circuit

there's only one path for the current to

flow

and this is the only path that it can

flow from a to b

in a parallel circuit there's multiple

paths

for the current to flow going from a to

b the current can flow through

r1 it can flow through r2

and it can flow through r3 and so that

could help you to distinguish

whether if two components are connected

in series or in parallel

if there's only one path for the current

to flow it's connected in series

if there are multiple paths for the

current to flow it's connected in

parallel now there's some other

important things to take into account

here

because in a series circuit the current

flowing through each resistor is the

same

so the current flowing through r1 is

called

i1 the current flowing through r2

is i2 each of these currents they're the

same current i1 is equal to i2 and

that's equal to i3

now in a parallel circuit the voltage

across each resistor is the same

so the voltage across r1 is v1 the

voltage across r2 is v2

because they're connected across the

same two points

so that's another thing you need to be

aware of when dealing with series

circuits and parallel circuits

in a series circuit the current flowing

through each resistor is the same

in the parallel circuit the voltage

across each resistor

is the same

now let's say we have two

10 ohm resistors there's a lot of things

we can do with that

with those two 10 ohm resistors we can

get

three different resistor values we could

use

one of the two resistors to get a

resistance

value of 10 ohms or if we wish to

increase the resistance

we can connect the two resistors in

series

and so the total resistance across these

two points

let's call it point a and b is now r1

plus r2

so we get 20. now if we wish to decrease

the resistance

we can connect the two resistors in

parallel

now whenever you connect two resistors

in parallel

if the two resistors have the same value

if they're identical the total

resistance

of the two identical resistors will be

half of their respective values

so it's going to be 5 ohms so thus

if you want to increase the resistance

connect resistors in series

if you wish to decrease the resistance

connect them

in parallel now for those of you who

want to see the calculation

it's going to be 1 over r1 r1 is

10 plus 1 over r2

raised to the minus 1. so one over ten

plus one over ten

is two over ten and when you raise

something to

the minus one power you basically need

to flip the fraction

if you flip the fraction the exponent

will change sign

it will change from being negative one

to positive one

ten over two to the first power is

simply ten over two

and ten divided by two is five

and so anytime you connect two identical

resistors in parallel

the total resistance will be half of

their respective values

now the next type of device that we need

to talk about is

the light bulb the light bulb converts

electricity

into light energy and this particular

light bulb does so

through a process known as incandescence

in incandescence what happens is when a

metal gets very hot

it's going to become red hot first and

as it gets hotter

the color changes it'll turn yellow

it may even be white hot and so when a

metal is very hot

it begins to emit not only heat energy

but light energy

and so incandescence is a process where

you can generate light

by heating up a material in this light

bulb

there is a tiny

wire called a filament

so this is going to be green color and

the reason why it has to be so thin is

because

if you have a lot of electrons flowing

through a very thin wire

it's going to be very easy to heat up

that metal wire

and as the metal wire gets hot it's

going to emit light

if it reaches a high enough temperature

and so that's incandescence

when you apply an electric current

through a very tiny piece of metal

it can get hot to the point where it

emits light

now with these types of light bulbs

they're not very efficient

in generating light energy they work but

a lot of the energy is wasted as heat

energy they generate a lot of heat

and is another type of device

that we could use that can also generate

light energy
and this is known as an led

a light emitting diode

let's use a green led

a light emitting diode also converts

electricity

to light energy but it does so more

efficiently

it doesn't use the process of

incandescence in fact

leds are monochromatic light sources

they generate light of one specific

wavelength

and as a result these devices are very

efficient

at converting electricity into light

energy very little heat is generated

they don't use up that much current a

typical

green led has a voltage drop of 2 volts

and the amount of current that usually

flows to an led

can vary between 0.1 milliamps to 20.

if you put too much current in an led

it can burn out so there are limits when

you're buying an led you need to look at

the manufacturer's specifications in

terms of

what the maximum forward current should

be but this is typically

the range of most leds that you

encounter in electronics

now let's say we have a 9 volt battery

and we want to determine the value of

the current limited resistor

that we should use in order to get a

current of 10 milliamps flowing through

this led

because you don't want too much current

to flow in it so this is when

it's useful to add a current limited

resistor

how can we determine the resistance

value that we need

well for one thing we need to determine

the voltage across the resistor

the led will use up two volts out of the

nine volts

that the battery is providing to the

circuit

so the resistor is going to take up the

other seven volts

and this is the basic idea behind

kirchhoff's voltage law

the sum of the voltage drops in a closed

loop or in a closed circuit

must add up to zero the battery

has because it increases the energy to a

circuit

we're going to put a positive voltage to

it the resistor and the led

they absorb energy from the circuit so

we're going to put a negative value

if you add 9 negative 7 and negative 2

you'll get 0

which satisfies kirchhoff's voltage law

now in order to calculate the resistance

that we need

we could use ohm's law v is equal to ir

so solving for r is going to be the

voltage divided by the current

so we have 7 volts across the resistor

and we want a current of 10 milliamps

across it

by the way if you take if you divide

volts

by amps you're gonna get the resistance

in ohms

if you divide volts by milliamps you'll

get the resistance in kiloohms

so just be aware of that

so if we take 7 volts divided by 10

milliamps

this is going to give us 0.7 kiloohms

now one kilo ohm is a thousand ohms

so 0.7 kilo ohms is 700 ohms

so we need a 700 ohm resistor in order

to get

a current of approximately 10 milliamps

in a circuit
now the next type of device that i want

to talk about is something known as

a potentiometer now you might be

wondering what is a potentiometer

a potentiometer is a variable resistor

it's a device where you can adjust the

resistance of a circuit

and that's pretty useful because you

could use that

to control the voltage across an element

or you could use it to control the

amount of current

in the circuit but let's talk about the

potentiometer

so here is the electrical symbol of

a potentiometer you can draw this way

you can draw this way it's a variable

resistor

but let's use this version of it i want

you to

understand how it works

so let's call this point a

point b and point c

now let's say this is a 100

kilo ohm potentiometer

if c is at the middle of

a and b the resistance between a and c

will be 50k

the resistance between b and c will be

50k

but the resistance between a and b is

always 100k

and that's important so let's say we

move up

point c closer to a

and this is still a 100k resistor

so the 100k potentiometer will still

have a resistance of 100 kiloohms

between point a

and b that's not going to change what

changes

is the relative resistance between a and

c and b and c

so now if the resistance between a and c

is 25 k

the resistance between b and c will be

75 kilo ohms

the sum total will always be 100 kilo

ohms

and so sometimes you don't need to use

all three points of a potentiometer

you may only need to use two of the

three points

and so if we only use a and c we can

adjust the resistance of a and c

from zero kilo ohms to a hundred kilo

ohms

now there's many applications of

potentiometers we won't be able to cover

all of them in this video

but let's talk about the basics of it

one useful application of the

potentiometer

is using it for brightness control let

me draw a better circuit

sometime my drawing skills is not what

it should be

so in this example i'm only going to use

two

of the three parts of the potentiometer

so let's use a 9 volt battery

and we're going to use a green led with

a voltage drop of 2 volts

let's call this r1 and r2

and let's say that r1 is a 10 kiloohm

potentiometer

let's call this point a b and c

so between a and b the resistance is

always 10 kilo ohms

but between a and c it can vary between

and 10 kilo ohms

now if r1 goes to zero kilo ohms

that's dangerous for the led because

without r2 there

we could have too much current flowing

through the led

so r2 is it serves to protect the led

in the event that r1 is tuned to zero

kilo ohms

so the maximum current of a typical led

is 20 milliamps

to determine our r2 value let's assume

r1 goes to zero

so r2 is going to be the voltage

which if we take the difference between

and 2 volts the maximum voltage across

r2 will be 7 volts

divided by a maximum current of 20

milliamps

now if you want to convert from

milliamps to amps divide by a thousand

one amp is a thousand milliamps

so 20 divided by 1000 that's 0.02

so 20 milliamps is 0.02 amps

7 divided by 0.02 is 350.

so we want r2 to be 350 ohms

so if r1 is set to 0k

the most or the maximum amount of

current that we're going to get in the

circuit is 20 milliamps

which means the led will be super bright

but now if

r1 is tuned all the way to 10k

then the total resistance in the circuit

will be 10k

plus 350 ohms so thus it will be 10.35

kiloohms

keep in mind 350 ohms is 0.35 kilo ohms

so the max current which will be voltage

divided by resistance

that's going to be we're going to have 7

volts

across these two resistors equivalently

if this goes up to 10k

so the total voltage across the two

resistors will be no more than seven

volts

due to the two volt drop of the led

and the total resistance is 10.35

kiloohms

now remember if you divide volts by amps

you get the resistance in ohms if you

divide

volts by kiloohms you're going to get

the current

in milliamps

7 divided by 10.35 kilo ohms

is going to give us a current of 0.676

milliamps so with this potentiometer

the current in the circuit can vary

between

0.68 milliamps and 20 milliamps

so when r1 is set to 0k the current is

going to be very high

which means the led will be super bright

if we adjust

r1 to 10k the current flowing in the

circuit will be very low

which means the led will be very dim so

thus we could use a potentiometer

for brightness control the potentiometer

can help us to

adjust the resistance in the circuit

thereby adjusting the current flowing in

a circuit

thus controlling the brightness of the

led

so that's one of the many applications

of potentiometers

in electronics now before moving on to

the next topic i want to mention a few

things

for those of you who want more

information on potentiometers

leds how to calculate the current in

series and parallel circuits

and even other things i'm going to talk

about later in this video

i'm going to post some links in the

description section

below this video so feel free to take a

look at that

if you want access to other videos

regarding electronic circuits

in addition i have a playlist on

electronics

that you could find at my website

www.videodashtutor.net

so if you want to see a playlist with

electronics topics

feel free to take a look at that and for

those of you who want to see what

equipment i've used

when building electronic circuits and

other science and

tech stuff you can check out my amazon

store

it's slash amazon.com

slash the organic chemistry tutor

so if you want to see what type of

multimedia i've been using or

what type of electronic components that

i've experimented with

and if you want to test it out yourself

you could find it

all at this link so feel free to take a

look at that when you get a chance

now the next thing that we're going to

talk about is

the voltage divider network using

resistors

because the potentiometer is very useful

in this case

so let's say we have two resistors

and both of them is 10 ohms

and let's say we have a 12 volt battery

the voltage across the 10 ohm resistor

will be half of the 12 volt battery

and let me give you the formula

associated with this type of circuit

let's call this r1 and r2

and let's call the voltage of the

battery v

and we're going to say the voltage

across r2 is the output voltage

the output voltage is going to equal

the input voltage times

r2 divided by r1 plus r2

now let's adjust this circuit now this

circuit works by

reducing the voltage through power

dissipation

the energy provided by the battery some

of it is dissipated

in the form of heat and because we're

losing energy we can decrease the

voltage

but now let's see how we can incorporate

a potentiometer in this circuit

so this is one way in which you can do

it

so let's say this is

r2 and the potentiometer is r1

let's say r2 is a one kilo ohm resistor

and r1 is let's say

let's make it a 10 kilo ohm resistor

and let's use a 12 volt battery so what

we're going to do is we're going to

calculate

the range of the voltage across r2

so r1 can vary between 0k

and 10k so let's calculate the output

voltage

when r1 is set to 0k

so we know the output voltage is going

to be the input voltage which is 12

times r2 over r1 plus r2

so when r1 is 0k

you can just eliminate r1 out of the

equation it's going to be r2 over r2

which

cancels to 1 so the output voltage will

be 12.

so let's say v out is equal to 12 volts

now what about if r1 is set to its

maximum value

in this case r2 is still 1k

r1 is 10k

so it's going to be 12

times 1k divided by 11k

so the minimum voltage of this circuit

will be 1.09 volts

when r1 is adjusted to its maximum value

so using this potentiometer we can

adjust the voltage across r2

from approximately 1 volt to 12 volts so

that's another application

of potentiometers now the way we

connected this potentiometer was

different

than what we did before this time

instead of just using two of the three

pins

we used all three so i'm going to talk

about when you see a circuit that

when you see a potentiometer connected

that way

i want you to understand what's

happening here

so we have our three points point a

point b

and point c and let's use a 100

kiloohm potentiometer

let me adjust this so let's say point c

is closer to point a

such that this is 25 k and this is 75 k

so the resistance between b and c will

be 75 k

if b and c are not connected to each

other but what happens

if we make a connection between b and c

well let's say we have a 10 kilo ohm

resistor
that's going to be the resistance

between point a and point b

but if we were to connect a wire between

point a and point b

what's going to happen well when

electrons

enter this circuit they don't want to

flow through the resistor

they're going to flow through this

conductor because there's less

resistance

and so the wire bypasses the resistor

the resistance between a and b

is now 0 ohms due to the wire that's

connected across the resistor

so once we connect b and c the

resistance of b and c is wiped out

so the resistance between a and b is no

longer going to be a hundred

kiloohms but 75 kilo ohms out of that

100 kilo ohms will be wiped out

so it's only going to be 25k

so the electrons they will flow through

25 kiloohms of resistance

after that they're not going to flow

through the other 75k

they're going to go through this

conductor to get to point b

so when you connect it this way just

understand that

the resistance will be whatever the

resistance is between point a and c

that's going to be the resistance

between a and b

now i want to go back to the led

the light emitting diode

as mentioned before an led converts

electricity

into light energy efficiently without

generating much heat

but there's a device that works in the

opposite direction and that is

a solar cell

a solar cell converts light energy

typically from the sun into electricity

and so a solar cell is a power source

more specifically a dc

power source it kind of works like a

battery in the presence of light

generating electricity that can be used

to power your circuits