the flow of electrons is from the negative terminal to the positive one

Directcurrent(dcflows through the circuit

in one direction
the direction of conventional current is from the positive terminal to the
negative one

-this is opposite to electrons flow

Alternating Current
Alternating current(ac) is usedinsteadof do in high
voltage devices

Alternating currentflows one way aroundthe

circuit andthen reverses its flow

AC direction usually changes every 0.01s

Electric Fields
Electric Fields
An electric fieldis an electric charge "feels"a
force
·it is a vector field
·the direction of the electric fieldis the same as the
direction of the electric force

Electric Field Strength

The electric fieldstrength is a measure of the strength of the electric field
The electric fieldstrength is defined as the magnitude of the electric force per unit charge
experiencedby a small positive test charge placed that
at point

the equation to calculate the electric fieldstrength

a
at given point in space as:E f =

where:

-
E electric fieldstrength in newtons per coulomb
=

·F:electric force in newtons (N)

9:electric charge in couldumbs (c)

Representing Electric Fields

Electric field lines are usedto visualise electric fields
Arrows
along the lines indicate the direction of the field
the arrows always point
away from the
positive charge andtowards the negative
charge
Arounda point
charge or a
chargedsphere,
the electric fieldlines are directly radiallyin-
words or outwards:

·if the
charge is positive,the fields lines are

radially outwards

if the
charge is negative, the fieldlines are radially
inwards
This shares
many similarities to radial
gravitational field lines arounda pointmass
-the difference being thatthe gravitational force is always attractive, whilst the electric
force can be either attractive or repulsive
The
strength of the electric fieldis proportional to the number of lines per unit cross-
sectional area