AlternatingCurrentElectricity-Wikispaces-cashmerephysics.ppt

Alternating Current Electricity NCEA A.S 3.6 Text Chapters 18-19 Why AC? It can be produced directly from generators It can be controlled by a wide range of components eg resistors,capacitors and inductors. The max voltage can be changed easily using a transformer The frequency of the AC can be used for timing AC Current AC Voltage AC Power P=VxI Multiplying the graphs gives us a graph where the power is always positive AC Power The average voltage in ac is zero since there is an equal amount of positive and negative voltage. Same for current The average value of the power used in ac is half that of the peak power RMS Values Since voltage and current are always changing we need some way of averaging out their effect. We use r.m.s values (root-mean-square) The r.m.s values are the DC values which give the same average power output RMS Values RMS Values AC in Capacitors In a DC circuit, the current flows until the cap is fully charged and then stops. In an AC circuit, the current can continue to flow, as the plates become alternately charged positively and negatively Reactance For both AC and DC circuits, the voltage across the resistor is related to the current by V=IR A similar relationship exists for a capacitor: Where Xc is the reactance of the capacitor Reactance Reactance is a measure of how a capacitor can limit alternating current Unit: Ohms It is similar to resistance but differs in that it is dependent on the frequency of the ac supply. It also depends on the size of the capacitor. Reactance Explanations: Higher f means cap never gets full before current direction changes, so never limits current, so low X Higher C means that it takes more charge to fill it, so never fills before current direction changes, so never limits current, so low X Phase Relationship In a DC circuit the voltage across components connected in series will add up to the supply voltage In AC circuits this does not happen Eg. Phase Relationship Reasons: The meters used to measur