CURRENT ELECTRICITY

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
• To Learn
• Combination of Cells in series and parallel
• Thermal effects of current
• Electrolysis and Electrolytic Burns
• Ionization of Gases and Thermionic emission
• Electronic tubes
• Diodes and Triodes
 Cells Connected in Series and Parallel
• An applied voltage higher than the voltage of one cell
can be obtained by connecting cells in series.
• The total voltage available across the battery of cells is
equal to the sum of the individual values for each cell.
• Parallel cells have the same voltage as one cell but
have more current capacity.
• To provide a higher output voltage and more current
capacity, cells can be connected in series-parallel
combinations.
• The combination of cells is called a battery.
 CELLS IN SERIES CONNECTION
 Cells or batteries connected in series have the
positive terminal of one cell or battery
connected to the negative terminal of another
cell or battery.
 This has the effect of increasing the overall
voltage but the overall current capacity
remains the same.
• The current capacity of a battery with cells in series is the
same as that for one cell because the same current flows
through all series cells.
 CELLS IN PARALLEL CONNECTION
• Cells or batteries connected in parallel have
their like terminals connected together.
• The overall voltage remains the same but the
current capacity is increased.
• For example, if two 12-V automotive batteries
were connected in parallel,
 The overall voltage for the batteries would still
be 12 V.
 However, the connected batteries would have
twice the current capacity of a single 12-V
battery.
• The parallel connection is equivalent to increasing the size of
the electrodes and electrolyte, which increases the current
capacity.
 THERMAL EFFECTS OF CURRENT
 In 1860, Joule conducted a series of
experiments and gave the relation between
work done (W) and heat (Q) produced.
 Therefore the heat developed due to
conversion of any form of work or energy is
called ‘Joule Heat’.
 Thus in a resistor, electric current causes
heating effect.
• When a potential difference is applied between the
ends of a metallic conductor, the free electrons gain
energy and begin to drift.
• In the process, they collide with the ion-core of the
conductor and transfer energy.
• Then, the ions begin to vibrate with increased
amplitude.
• This results in the increase of temperature of the
conductor which transmits heat to the surroundings.
• This is called the heating effect of electric current.
Factors governing heating effects of
electric current
 The quantity of heat produced by a current in
a given time is directly proportional to the
resistance.
 The quantity of heat produced by a current in
a resistance is directly proportional to the
time for which current flows through it.
 The quantity of heat produced by a current in
a resistance is directly proportional to the
square of the magnitude of the current
 Thermionic Emission
• Thermionic emission, discharge of electrons
from heated materials, widely used as a source
of electrons in conventional electron tubes
(e.g., television picture tubes) in the fields of
electronics and communications.
• The phenomenon was first observed (1883)
by Thomas A. Edison as a passage of electricity
from a filament to a plate of metal inside an
incandescent lamp
• In thermionic emission, the heat supplies
some electrons with at least the minimal
energy required to overcome the attractive
force holding them in the structure of the
metal.
• This minimal energy, called the work function,
is characteristic of the emitting material and
the state of contamination of its surface
 Electronic tube(vacuum tube)
• A vacuum tube also called a electron tubes is a sealed
glass or metal-ceramic enclosure used in electronic
circuitry to control the flow of electrons between the
metal electrodes sealed inside the tubes.
• The air inside the tubes is removed by a vacuum.
• Vacuum tubes are used for: amplification of a weak
current, rectification of an alternating current to direct
current (AC to DC), generation of oscillating radio-
frequency (RF) power for radio and radar, and more.
• The simplest vacuum tube, the diode, contains only
two elements; current can only flow in one direction
through the device between the two electrodes, as
electrons emitted by the hot cathode travel through
the tube and are collected by the anode. Addition of a
third and additional electrodes allows the current
flowing between cathode and anode to be controlled in
various ways.
• Vacuum tubes mostly rely on thermionic emission of
electrons from a hot filament or a cathode heated by
the filament.
• The earliest vacuum tubes evolved from incandescent light bulbs, containing
a filament sealed in an evacuated glass envelope. When hot, the filament
releases electrons into the vacuum, a process called thermionic emission.
• A second electrode, the anode or plate, will attract those electrons if it is at a
more positive voltage. The result is a net flow of electrons from the filament
to plate. However, electrons cannot flow in the reverse direction because the
plate is not heated and does not emit electrons.
• The filament (cathode) has a dual function: it emits electrons when heated;
and, together with the plate, it creates an electric field due to the potential
difference between them.
• Such a tube with only two electrodes is termed a diode, and is used for
rectification. Since current can only pass in one direction, such a diode (or
rectifier) will convert alternating current (AC) to pulsating DC. This can
therefore be used in a DC power supply
 Diodes
• a diode is a two-terminal electronic component with
asymmetric conductance; it has low (ideally
zero) resistance to current in one direction, and high resistance
in the other
• A vacuum tube diode has two electrodes, a plate (anode) and a
heated cathode.
• The most common function of a diode is to allow an electric
current to pass in one direction (called the diode's forward
direction), while blocking current in the opposite direction (the
reverse direction)
• This unidirectional behavior is called rectification, and is used
to convert alternating current to direct current
 Triodes
• A triode is an electronic amplifying vacuum tube which consists of three
electrodes inside an evacuated glass envelope: a heated filament or
cathode, a grid, and a plate (anode).
• invented in 1906 by Lee De Forest by adding a grid to the Fleming
valve, the triode was the first electronic amplification device.

• Construction:
All triodes have a hot cathode electrode heated by a filament, which releases
electrons, and a flat metal plate electrode to which the electrons are
attracted, with a grid consisting of a screen of wires between them to control
the current. These are sealed inside a glass container from which the air has
been removed to a high vacuum, about 10−9 atm. Since the filament
eventually burns out the tube has a limited lifetime and is made as a
replaceable unit
• In the triode, electrons are released into the tube from the metal cathode by
heating it, a process called thermionic emission. The cathode is heated red hot by
a separate current flowing through a thin metal filament. In a few triodes, the
filament itself is the cathode
• all the air is removed from the tube, so the electrons can move freely.
• The negative electrons are attracted to the positively-charged plate (anode), and
flow through the spaces between the grid wires to it, creating a current through
the tube from cathode to plate.
• The magnitude of this current can be controlled by a voltage applied between the
cathode and the grid. The grid acts like a gate for the electrons. A more negative
voltage on the grid will repel some of the electrons, so fewer get through to the
plate, reducing the plate current. A positive voltage on the grid will attract more
electrons from the cathode, so more reach the plate, increasing the plate current
• a low power varying (AC) signal applied to the grid can control a much more
powerful plate current; resulting in amplification
WHAT DID YOU LEARN ?
 REFERENCES
• 1.Pauline M .Scott for Claytons Electrotherapy and
Actinotherapy
THANK YOU