CURRENT, RESISTANCE,

AND ELECTROMOTIVE
FORCE
Key Concepts
 Current is any motion of charge from one region to another.

 Electric current is the flow of charges. If the charges follow a conducting path
that forms a closed loop, the path is called an electric circuit.
Key Concepts
 In different current-carrying materials, the charges of the moving particles may be
positive or negative.

o In metals, the moving charges are always (negative) electrons, while in an ionized
gas (plasma) or an ionic solution the moving charges may include both electrons
and positively charged ions.

o In a semiconductor material such as germanium or silicon, conduction is partly by

electrons and partly by motion of vacancies, also known as holes; these are sites of
missing electrons and act like positive charges.
Key Concepts
 Conventional current assumes that current flows out of the positive terminal,
through the circuit and into the negative terminal of the source. Even in cases in
which we know that the actual current is due to electrons.
Key Concepts
 Electron flow is what actually happens
and electrons flow out of the negative
terminal, through the circuit and into the
positive terminal of the source.

 The number of charges that passes through a point per second is called current and
uses the symbol I. Then,
Key Concepts

 Current is any motion of charge from one region to another.

Key Concepts

 Commercially, current is
referred to as amperage.
The instrument used to
measure current is ammeter.
Key Concepts
 Current is related to the potential difference of the terminals and the permittivity
of the path to current. This is summarized as

Where 𝑉 is the potential difference in volt (V), 𝑅 is the resistance in ohm (Ω)
and I is the current in Ampere (A)

 Resistance (R) depends on the nature and dimensions of the material used as a
conductor of current. The unit ohm (Ω) is named after Georg Ohm, a German
physicist. The unit is volt per ampere (V/A).
Key Concepts
 According to Ohm’s Law, the resistance of a metallic conductor
depends on the following:
o Length of the conducting wire – The longer the wire, the higher its
resistance.
o Cross-sectional area of the conductor- The thicker the conductor, the
lower the resistance.
o Nature of the conductor – The more free electrons there are, the lower the
resistance
Key Concepts
 Resistance R of a conductor is defined as:
Key Concepts
 The resistivity of a
metallic conductor
nearly always
increases with
increasing temperature.
 As the temperature
decreases, the
resistivity at first
decreases smoothly,
like that of any metal.
Key Concepts
 Electromotive force (emf) is the influence that makes current flow from
lower to higher potential. Emf is not a force but an energy-per-unit-charge
quantity, like potential.
 The SI unit of emf is the same as that for potential, the volt (1 V = 1 J/C). A
typical flashlight battery has an emf of 1.5 V; this means that the battery
does 1.5 J of work on every coulomb of charge that passes through it.
 Examples of sources of emf: batteries, electric generators, solar cells,
thermocouples, and fuel cells
Key Concepts
ELECTROMOTIVE FORCE emf POTENTIAL DIFFERENCE
V
 It is the measure of energy that it gives  It is the amount of energy used by the
to each coulomb of charge one coulomb of charge.
 Represented by the symbol ε  Represented by the symbol V
 The emf transfers the energy in the  The potential difference is the measure
whole of the circuit of energy between any two points on the
circuit.
 The magnitude of emf has always  The magnitude of the potential
remained constant. difference varies.
Key Concepts
SYMBOLS FOR CIRCUIT DIAGRAMS
 A circuit diagram (also
known as an electrical
diagram, elementary
diagram, or electronic
schematic) is a simplified
conventional graphical
representation of an
electrical circuit.