Electricity-

current/voltage/resistance/Oh
m
Current
• Is the flow of charge which transfers energy around the circuit.
• When a circuit is complete and includes an energy
source, charged particles are pushed around the circuit via
the wires.

• The amount of current going around a circuit is measured

in amperes, or amps for short. This is given the symbol A.

• Measuring the current is a bit like standing in a river and being

able to measure how much water rushes past in a second.
Current
• Coulomb is counting the
number of electrons that are
whizzing past a point in
the wire over one second.

1 ampere = 1 coulomb per

second.
• The direction of the positive
flow is called the Conventional
Current.
• Electrons move from the
negative side to the positive
side of the battery
Current
• To measure current, we use an ammeter.
• We measure current in line within the circuit. This is because
the electrons have to pass through the ammeter for
the charge to be measured.
• A larger current has more amps and therefore a
higher charge than a smaller current.
Voltage
• Voltage is the difference in potential energy across an energy source or circuit
component.
• The unit for voltage is the volt (V).

• Energy flows from places with high potential energy to places with low potential
energy.

• Energy is supplied by the energy source of circuit. This energy flows around the circuit so that it
can be used by the circuit components.

• Therefore, the energy source has higher potential energy on one side and not the other.

• An energy source with a high voltage supplies more energy to the circuit.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4FpbaMW5sk&feature=emb_logo
Voltage
• We use a voltmeter to measure the voltage between two
points in the circuit.

• If there is a high voltage it means that there is

a large difference in potential energy. This means that
the electrons either gain or lose a lot of energy. Vice versa.

• If the voltmeter reads 0V then there is not energy being

gained or lost.
 Voltage
• We connect voltmeters externally
to the circuit component that we
are measuring the voltage across.

• This means that we add an

extra loop onto the circuit to attach
the voltmeter to instead of
connecting it in line with the circuit
components.
Summary of voltage and resistance in a
parallel and series circuit
• In a series circuit, the current through each of the components is the
same, and the voltage across the circuit is the sum of the voltages
across each component.
• In a parallel circuit, the voltage across each of the components is the
same, and the total current is the sum of the currents through each
component.
 Resistance
• Sometimes it is difficult for a current to flow through a circuit
component.
• This is due to the resistance of the circuit component.

Resistance is how much a component opposes the flow of

current through it. It causes the electrons to bump into each
other.

• Resistance has the unit ohm (Ω).

• If there is high resistance then you have high ohms vice versa.
Resistance
• We can change the resistance of the wire by changing
its length, its width and the material it's made out of.

increase in length= increased resistance

Increase width= decreased resistance

Use of insulators= decreased resistance

Use of conductors= increased resistance
Resistance is measured using Ohms
Ohm’s Law
• The final step here is that current is inversely
proportional to resistance.

• An inversely proportional relationship means that if one

value decreases, the other will increase.

V=I×R
I=V/R
Ohm’s Law
• A directly proportional relationship means that changes that
happen to one variable will happen to the other.

• So what Ohm's Law states is that increasing voltage will

increase the current, and decreasing current will decrease
the voltage.
Ohm's Law

• Voltage is also directly proportional to resistance.

• A high voltage is caused by a high resistance, and a low voltage is caused

by a low resistance (for the same value of current).

• There is a loss of potential energy when a current flows through a circuit

component.

• This is because the component transforms the electric potential

energy into a different form.
 Summary
• Ohm's Law links the current, the resistance and the voltage of
a circuit together.

• Current: Current is a value describing the amount,

of charges passing through a point in a given second.

• Voltage: Voltage is a value describing how much energy is lost by

a current travelling around a circuit.

• Resistance: Resistance is a value describing how much

a circuit resists the passage of current through it.