4.

1 Electrical charges and fields

● a charged object will create an electric field around itself

● when second charged object move nearby, force will exist between the two
substances

● sparks

1. high potential difference between charged object and the earthed

object

2. strong electric field formed

3. the field cause electrons in the air particles to be removed (ionisation)

4. when air is ionised. it becomes conductive and current can flow

through. Then, sparks happen
A). Static electricity

● when insulating material are rubbed together, it will leave the material
electrically charged, with one positive and equal negative on another

● which way the electrons transfer is due to the two materials

● material become positive charge as electrons have move away

4.2 Current and charge

● current = number of charge that move through per second

A). How a light bulb will works ?

1. electrons will gain energy from the battery as there are chemical reaction
inside those batteries

2. electrons transfer energy to the filament by colliding with the metal’s atom
inside
4.3 Potential difference and resistance

A). Potential difference

● voltage (p.d.) = the driving force that pushes the charge round

● ammeter is connected in series with the bulb, so the current through them is
the same

● Voltmeter is connected in parallel with the torch bulb, so it measures the

potential difference across it.

B). Resistance

● the force that slow the flow down

● take light bulb as example, when electrons pass through the metal filament,
the vibrating metal atoms will resist the passage of electrons

● Ohm’s law = the current through a resistor is directly proportional to the

potential difference across the resistor at constant temperature

● Ohmic conductor = its resistance stays constant as the current changes,

making its temperature is constant

● non-ohmic conductor = conductor that don’t follow the Ohm’s law, the
resistance are variable

~> when temperature increase, the metal atoms inside the filament will
vibrate more and they will resist the passage of the electrons more
4.4 Component characteristics

A). The diode

● current through a diode will flow one direction only, called the forward
direction

● the diode has very high resistance in the reverse direction

● Light-emitting diode = a diode emit light when a current pass through in the
forward direction

B). Sensor Circuits

● Thermistor = temperature-dependent resistors, its resistance decrease if its

temperature increase

● light-dependent resistor = resistor decrease if the light intensity increase

4.5 Series Circuits

● remove / disconnect one component ~> the circuit is broken and stop

A). Potential difference is shared

● total pd is shared between various components (need to add up them)

B). Current is the same everywhere

● current is the same in all components

● size of the current ~> total pd and total resistances

C).Resistances add up

● adding more resistor, resistance will increase but the p.d. is the same. Then,
the current will decrease.
4.6 Parallel circuits

A). independence and isolation

● each component is separately connected to the +ve and -ve

● if you remove / disconnect one of them, it won’t affect others

B). Potential Difference

● all components get the full source p.d. , so the potential difference is the same
across all components

C). Current

● total current = the sum of current flow separately through each components

● two identical components connected in parallel ~> same current

D). Total resistance will be reduced when adding a resistor

● if you have two resistor, the total resistance will be less than the resistance of
the smallest resistor

● reason :

1. as both resistors have same potential difference

2. However, by adding more components, the current has more direction

to go in

3. the increase in total current while unchanged in voltage will due to

decrease in total resistance