Parallel and Series circuits

So I learned about parallel and series circuits and the difference between the two. A series circuit is a circuit in which resistors are arranged in a chain, so the current has only one path to take. The current is the same through each resistor. The total resistance of the circuit is found by simply adding up the resistance values of the individual resistors: equivalent resistance of resistors in series : R = R₁ + R₂ + R₃ + ... etc. A parallel circuit is a circuit in which the resistors are arranged with their heads connected together, and their tails connected together. The current in a parallel circuit breaks up, with some flowing along each parallel branch and re-combining when the branches meet again. The voltage across each resistor in parallel is the same. Too bad the quiz problems for these are so difficult. There is one problem that is so hard to figure out. It's not even a parallel or a series circuit, it the INCEPTION circuit. Its got a parallel within a series within a parallel and a random diamond shape thrown in there. What is also confusing is that the current is the same in a series, but not in a parallel and the voltage is the same in a parallel and not in a series. And i'm pretty sure to find the resistance of the parallel its the equation: Req=1/R₁ +1/ R_{2, etc.} 

Ele3ctricity

So we learned about circuits, currents, resistance, voltages, amps, etc. but now we have this assignment where we have to find what appliances in the house use the most and less electricity. what i learned from doing this assignment is that every appliance has numbers either on the bottom or on the sticker on the side that usually list the voltage and the Amps, and sometimes the resistance. By using the equation V=IR, I could find the resistance, voltage, and current for almost all my appliances. The appliances in my house that use the most volts is the Drier and the Oven. I'm pretty sure it is because it uses a lot more heat than the other appliances which uses more volts or electricity. did you know a hair straightener uses the same amount of volts as an oven? well yep, it does, I checked. A hair straightener uses 240 volts, well it makes sense considering the fact that it can heat up to around 450 degrees (i'm pretty sure that temperature will burn you hair). So we were encouraged to do a small kind of electricity challenge to see how much energy we could save by cutting back on things. There are seven people in my household, and the monthly bill isn't that much; its around $175. My mom is a fanatic about turning the lights off. When we leave for a vacation or trip, she shuts off the power box. She'll wake up at two in the morning to turn any lights or fans off, and we have power outlets to plug our laptops and appliances in so she can switch it off. So i guess most of the electricity is used when we take a shower because there is a water heater in our house that doesn't have a timer, and i don't know how to time it. Also the oven and stove cause we bake a lot. It's not too hard to conserve electricity.

The Relationship between Resistance, Current, and Electricity

Resistance (in a circuit) is any resistance or opposition against the current flow. The electrical resistance of a conductor is a measure of how difficult it is to push the charges along. To find the voltage, the equation V=IR is used. This equation is called Ohm's Law. Current flow is the number of charges passing through a certain point per second or  the rate at which charge flows past a point on a circuit. The equation used for currents is I=Q/t. Yes, the symbol representing currents in I. The metric unit for current is an ampere or what you might know as an Amp.  A current of 1 ampere means that there is 1 coulomb of charge passing through a cross section of a wire every 1 second. Apparently there are two types of currents; direct current and alternating current. In a direct current, the electric charge flows in a constant or in one direction. Examples of direct current tools are laptop charges, phone charges, battery charges, etc. So, they are mainly appliances that are plugged into the wall and got to another device. The electric charge only travels one way; from the wall to the appliance. In an alternating current, The current flows in one direction for a period of time and then switches direction, going the opposite way, but it does it continuously. Power outlets and power plants are examples of alternating currents. Power outlets can charge more than one appliance, and power plants can send electricity to more than one area. 

Voltage, Electric Force, and Capacitance

Voltage, measured in volts or joules per coulomb, is the potential difference between two points. Voltage represents a source of energy, like a battery. In scientific terms, voltage is equal to the work which would have to be done, per unit charge, against a static electric field to move the charge between two points. Voltage is made so that negatively-charged objects are pulled towards higher voltages, while positively-charged objects are pulled towards lower voltages. Maybe that is why the numbers on the voltmeter thing would come out positive sometimes and negative the others (depending on what color wire it was attached to). Protons have a positive charge while electrons have a negative charge. The proton exerts an attractive force on the electron that is invisible, which is called electric force. In electric forces, negative charges are attracted to positive charges and vice versa. Negative charges repel negative charges and positive charges repel other positive charges. the equation used to find Capacitance is C=Q/V. The more charge stored per unit of V, the higher the value of C. Since V relates to the amount of work needed to produce the charge Q on the plates of the capacitor, having a high capacitance means it stores more charge for less work done in charging

Electric Potential

Electric Potential Energy and Electric Potential. These two terms are NOT the same. Electric Potential Energy can be defined as a potential energy (measured in Joules) that results from coulomb forces and is associated with the configuration of a set of charges within a system. In other words, electric potential energy is used to describe the potential energy in systems with electric fields that change with time. While electric potential energy has a dependency upon the charge of the object experiencing the electric field, electric potential is purely location dependent. Electric potential is the potential energy per charge. The equation for electric potential is  EP=PE/Q. How is this related to circuits? well, I believe a battery powered electric circuit has locations of high and low potential, and charge moving through the wires of the circuit will encounter changes in electric potential as it traverses the circuit. It's all kind of complicated. 

Charges 2

I didn't really learn anything new this past week about charges except for the fact that I have no idea how to do the review sheet. What i want to know is the answer to 6b.) on P.A. #31b, the one where it says: if there is about 13 pounds repulsive in each little helium than what is holding the nucleus together? Still clueless about some parts in this unit, hopefully everything is covered in today's review.

Charges

There are two different types of charges, positive and negative. Then, of course, there is the neutral charge. According to the Coulomb's Law or the Charge Force Law, like charges repel against each other while unlike charges attract. Meaning a positive and positive or a negative and a negative would repel against each other, but a positive and a negative will attract. For a neutral, however, both positive and negative charges are attracted to a neutral charge. A positive charge comes from having more protons than electrons and the opposite of that for a negative charge. And like momentum, charge is conserved as well. In physics, charges are represented by the letter "e". A proton having the charge of +e and a electron having the charge of -e.