Electrical Engineering Problems & Solutions

Current Through Element Problem

1 PROBLEM STATEMENT:
In this problem, we’re given a graph representing the current passing through an element with
respect to time, and we need to find the amount of charge passing through the element at: t = 1, t
= 3 and t = 5.

2 CONCEPT & DISCUSSION:

The concept of this problem is the relation or formula relating the amount of charge passing
through an element with respect to electric current intensity (I) and time (t) as shown:

To find the electric charge (q), we cross multiply and integrate to get:

Since the given current i(A) is represented as a piecewise function consisting of 4 functions, we
need to put an expression for the 4 sub-functions with their corresponding intervals to compute
the integral afterwards.

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Electrical Engineering Problems & Solutions

To find the amount of charge at each specified time-value (t=b), we use the integral shown
below, and apply the general rule of integration.

3 SOLUTION STEPS:
1. To find the amount of charge passing through the element after 1 second, we find that
this time interval satisfies the first sub-function only, and so we’ve:

2. Next, to find the amount of charge after 3-seconds, we find that it satisfies the 1st
subfunction, 2nd subfunction, and the 3rd one as well, so our integral will be:

3. For the last time interval, we need to calculate the total charge passing after 5-seconds, so
we construct the integral as follows:

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