http://www.nearingzero.net (nz105.

jpg)

Comment on exam scores

Titan Quest screenshot, just after escaping a monster
that ate a slow-footed companion.

It just goes to show, you do not

have to be faster than the
monsters you just have to be
faster than your slowest
companion.

Comment on exam scores

FS2013 Exam 1 grade distribution (regrades not
included)

In Physics 24, youd better be faster than the monsters.

Brain Freeze help needed (Friday, October 4):

10:10 am 11:00 am
11:10 am 12:00 noon
free lunch after, if you want it
also need help 1:15-2:30 pm; same idea, different group

Todays agenda:
Electric Current.
You must know the definition of current, and be able to use it in solving
problems.

Current Density.
You must understand the difference between current and current density, and
be able to use current density in solving problems.

Ohms Law and Resistance.

You must be able to use Ohms Law and electrical resistance in solving circuit
problems.

Resistivity.
You must understand the relationship between resistance and resistivity, and be
able to calculate resistivity and associated quantities.

Temperature Dependence of Resistivity.

You must be able to use the temperature coefficient of resistivity to solve
problems involving changing temperatures.

Electric Current
Definition of Electric Current
The average current that passes any point in a
conductor during a time t is defined as

Q
Iav
t
where Q is the amount of charge passing the point.

dQ
The instantaneous current Iis
=
.
dt
1C
1A= .
One ampere of current is one coulomb per second:
1s

Currents in battery-operated devices are often in the

milliamp range: 1 mA = 10-3 A.
m for millianother abbreviation to
remember!

Heres a really simple circuit:

+current

Dont try that at home! (Why not?)

The current is in the direction of flow of positive
charge
opposite to the flow of electrons, which are usually
the charge carriers.

+-

current

electrons

An electron flowing from to + gives rise to the same

conventional current as a proton flowing from + to -.
Conventional refers to our convention, which is
always to consider the effect of + charges (for example,
electric field direction is defined relative to + charges).

Hey, that figure you just showed me is confusing. Why

dont electrons flow like this?

+-

current

Good question.

electrons

+-

current

electrons

Electrons want to get away from - and go to +.

Chemical reactions (or whatever energy mechanism the
battery uses) force electrons to the negative terminal.
The battery wont let electrons flow the wrong way
inside it. So electrons pick the easiest paththrough
the external wires towards the + terminal.
Of course, real electrons dont want anything.

Note!
Current is a scalar quantity, and it has a sign associated
with it.
In diagrams, assume that a current indicated
by a symbol and an arrow is the conventional
current.

I1

If your calculation produces a negative value for the

current, that means the conventional current actually
flows opposite to the direction indicated by the arrow.

Example: 3.8x1021 electrons pass through a point in a

wire in 4 minutes. What was the average current?

Q Ne
Iav

t
t
Iav

21
19
3.8

10
1.6

10

4 60

Iav 2.53A

Todays agenda:
Electric Current.
You must know the definition of current, and be able to use it in solving
problems.

Current Density.
You must understand the difference between current and current density, and
be able to use current density in solving problems.

Ohms Law and Resistance.

You must be able to use Ohms Law and electrical resistance in solving circuit
problems.

Resistivity.
You must understand the relationship between resistance and resistivity, and be
able to use calculate resistivity and associated quantities.

Temperature Dependence of Resistivity.

You must be able to use the temperature coefficient of resistivity to solve
problems involving changing temperatures.

Current Density
When we study details of charge transport, we use the
concept of current density.
Current density is the amount of charge that flows
across a unit of area in a unit of time.

Current density: charge per area per time (current / area).

A current density J flowing through an infinitesimal area

dA produces an infinitesimal current dI.
dA
J

r r
dI J dA

Current density is a vector.

Its direction is the direction of
the velocity of positive charge
carriers.

The total current passing through A is just

surface

r r
J dA

No OSEs on this
page.
Simpler, less-general
OSE on next page.

Current density: charge per area per time.

J
A
If J is constant and parallel to dA (like in a wire), then

surface

r r
J dA J

dA JA

surface

I
J
A

Now lets take a microscopic view of current and

calculate J.
If n is the number of charges
vt
per volume, then the
v
number of charges that pass
A
q
through a surface A in a time
t
is
number

volume

volume n vt A

The total amount of charge passing through A is the

number of charges times the charge of each.
vt
q

Q nqvt A

Divide by t to get the current

Q
I
nqv A
t
and by A to get J:

J nqv .

To account for the vector nature of the current density,

r
r
J nqv

Not quite
official
yet.

and if the charge carriers are electrons, q=-e so that

r
r
Je n e v.

Not quite
official
yet.

The sign demonstrates that the velocity of the

electrons is antiparallel to the conventional current
direction.

Currents in Materials
Metals are conductors because they have free
electrons, which are not bound to metal atoms.
In a cubic meter of a typical conductor there roughly
1028 free electrons, moving with typical speeds of
1,000,000 m/s.

But the electrons move in random directions, and there

is no net flow of charge, until you apply an electric
field...

electron drift velocity

inside a
conducto
r

just one
electron
shown, for
simplicity

The voltage accelerates the electron, but only until the

electron collides with a scattering center. Then the
electrons velocity is randomized and the acceleration
begins again.
Some predictions based on this model are off by a
factor or 10 or so, but with the inclusion of some
quantum mechanics it becomes accurate. The
scattering idea is useful.
A greatly oversimplified model, but the idea is useful.

Even though some details of the model on the previous

slide are wrong, it points us in the right direction, and
works when you take quantum mechanics into account.
In particular, the velocity that should be used in

r
r
J n q v.

is not the charge carriers velocity (electrons in this

example).
Instead, we should the use net velocity of the collection
of electrons, the net velocity caused by the electric
Quantum mechanics shows us how to
field.
deal correctly with the collection of
electrons.

This net velocity is like the terminal velocity of a

parachutist; we call it the drift velocity.

r
r
J n q vd .

Its the drift velocity that we should use in our equations

for current and current density in conductors:

r
r
J n q vd
I nqv d A
I
vd
nqA

Example: the 12-gauge copper wire in a home has a

cross-sectional area of 3.31x10-6 m2 and carries a
current of 10 A. The conduction electron density in
copper is 8.49x1028 electrons/m3. Calculate the drift
speed of the electrons.

I
vd
nqA

I
vd
neA
10 C/s
vd
(8.49 1028 m -3 )(1.60 10 19 C)(3.3110 6 m 2 )
v d 2.22 104 m/s

Quiz time

(maybe for points, maybe just for

practice!)

Todays agenda:
Electric Current.
You must know the definition of current, and be able to use it in solving
problems.

Current Density.
You must understand the difference between current and current density, and
be able to use current density in solving problems.

Ohms Law and Resistance.

You must be able to use Ohms Law and electrical resistance in solving circuit
problems.

Resistivity.
You must understand the relationship between resistance and resistivity, and be
able to use calculate resistivity and associated quantities.

Temperature Dependence of Resistivity.

You must be able to use the temperature coefficient of resistivity to solve
problems involving changing temperatures.

Resistance
The resistance of a material is a measure of how easily
a charge flows through it.
Resistance: how much push is
needed to get a given current to flow.

V
R
I

1V
1
.
The unit of resistance is the ohm:
1A
Resistances of kilohms and megohms are common:

1 k 103 , 1 M=106.

Every circuit component has resistance.

This is the symbol we use for a resistor:

All wires have resistance. Obviously, for efficiency in

carrying a current, we want a wire having a low
resistance. In idealized problems, we will consider wire
resistance to be zero.
Lamps, batteries, and other devices in circuits have
resistance.

Resistors are often intentionally

used in circuits. The picture shows
a strip of five resistors (you tear off
the paper and solder the resistors
into circuits).
The little bands of color on the resistors have meaning.
Here are a couple of handy web links:
http://www.dannyg.com/examples/res2/resistor.htm
http://xtronics.com/kits/rcode.htm

Ohms Law
In some materials, the resistance is constant over a
wide range of voltages.
For such materials, we write
V IR,
equation Ohms Law.

and call the

In fact, Ohms Law is not a Law in the same sense as

Newtons Laws
and in advanced classes you will write something
other than V=IR when you write Ohms Law.

Newtons Laws demand; Ohms Law suggests.

Materials that follow Ohms Law are

called ohmic materials, and have
linear I vs. V graphs.

Materials that do not follow Ohms

Law are called nonohmic materials,
and have curved I vs. V graphs.

slope=1/R

V
I

slope=1/R

Materials that follow Ohms Law are

called ohmic materials, and have
linear I vs. V graphs.

Materials that do not follow Ohms

Law are called nonohmic materials,
and have curved I vs. V graphs.

V
I

Demo (if time allows):

ohmic and nonohmic conductors.

Demo:
temperature dependence of
resistivity.
Demo:
resistive heating.

I may wait and do these demos next lecture.

Todays agenda:
Electric Current.
You must know the definition of current, and be able to use it in solving
problems.

Current Density.
You must understand the difference between current and current density, and
be able to use current density in solving problems.

Ohms Law and Resistance.

You must be able to use Ohms Law and electrical resistance in solving circuit
problems.

Resistivity.
You must understand the relationship between resistance and resistivity, and be
able to use calculate resistivity and associated quantities.

Temperature Dependence of Resistivity.

You must be able to use the temperature coefficient of resistivity to solve
problems involving changing temperatures.

Resistivity
It is also experimentally observed (and justified by
quantum mechanics) that the resistance of a metal wire
is well-described by

L
R
,
A

where is a constant called the resistivity of the wire

material, L is the wire length, and A its cross-sectional
area.
This makes sense: a longer wire or higher-resistivity
wire should have a greater resistance. A larger area
means more space for electrons to get through, hence
lower resistance.

R = L / A,
units of
are
m

A
L

The longer a wire, the harder it is to push electrons

through it.
The greater the resistivity, the harder it is to push
electrons through it.
The greater the cross-sectional area, the easier it is to
push electrons through it.
Resistivity is a useful tool in physics because it depends
on the properties of the wire material, and not the
geometry.

Resistivities range from roughly 10-8 m for copper wire

to 1015 m for hard rubber. Thats an incredible range
of 23 orders of magnitude, and doesnt even include
superconductors (we might talk about them some time).
Example (will not be worked in class): Suppose you
want to connect your stereo to remote speakers.
(a) If each wire must be 20 m long, what diameter
copper wire should you use to make the resistance
0.10 per wire.
R = L / A
A = L / R
A = (d/2)2
(d/2)2 = L / R

geometry!

(d/2)2 = L / R
d/2= ( L / R )

dont skip steps!

d = 2 ( L / R )
d = 2 [ (1.68x10-8) (20) / (0.1) ]
d = 0.0021 m = 2.1 mm

(b) If the current to each speaker is 4.0 A, what is the

voltage drop across each wire?
V=IR

V = (4.0) (0.10)
V = 0.4 V

Homework hint you can look up the resistivity of

copper in a table in your text.

Ohms Law Revisited

The equation for resistivity I introduced five slides back
is a semi-empirical one. Heres almost how we define
resistivity:

E
.
J

NOT an official
starting
equation!

Our equation relating R and follows from the above

equation.
We define conductivity as the inverse of the
resistivity:
1
1

, or .

With the above definitions,

r
r
E J,

Think of this as our

definition of
resistivity.

r
r
J E.
The official Ohms law, valid for non-ohmic materials.

Cautions!
In this context:
is not volume density!
is not surface density!

Example: the 12-gauge copper wire in a home has a

cross-sectional area of 3.31x10-6 m2 and carries a
current of 10 A. Calculate the magnitude of the electric
field in the wire.

I
E J
A
(1.72 108 m) 10 C/s
E
(3.31106 m 2 )

E 5.20 102 V/m

Question: are we still assuming the electrostatic case?
Homework hint (not needed in this particular example): in this chapter it is safe to
use V=Ed.

Todays agenda:
Electric Current.
You must know the definition of current, and be able to use it in solving
problems.

Current Density.
You must understand the difference between current and current density, and
be able to use current density in solving problems.

Ohms Law and Resistance.

You must be able to use Ohms Law and electrical resistance in solving circuit
problems.

Resistivity.
You must understand the relationship between resistance and resistivity, and be
able to use calculate resistivity and associated quantities.

Temperature Dependence of Resistivity.

You must be able to use the temperature coefficient of resistivity to solve
problems involving changing temperatures.

Temperature Dependence of Resistivity

Many materials have resistivities that depend on
temperature. We can model* this temperature
dependence by an equation of the form

0 1 T T0 ,

where 0 is the resistivity at temperature T0, and is the

temperature coefficient of resistivity.

*T0 is a reference temperature, often taken to be 0 C or 20 C. This

approximation can be used if the temperature range is not too great;
i.e. 100 C or so.

Example: a carbon resistance thermometer in the

shape of a cylinder 1 cm long and 4 mm in diameter is
attached to a sample. The thermometer has a
resistance of 0.030 . What is the temperature of the
sample?
Look up resistivity of carbon, use it to calculate
resistance.
5

0 3.519 10 m

This is the resistivity at 20 C.

T0 20C

L = 0.01 m

r = 0.002 m

0 L
R 0 2 0.028
r
This is the resistance at 20 C.

 0.0005 C-1
RA
(R)
L
1
T(R) T0
1
0
T(0.030) 122.6 C
The result is very sensitive to significant figures in
resistivity and .