Tuesday, February 8, 2011

From Battery to Circuit (Energy Transformation)

Currents have a continuous flow of charged particles moving through loads/resistors, conductors, and energy sources, but how in the world do the charged particles manage to continuously "jump" from the negative to the positive electrodes ("a conductor used to make electrical contact with some part of a circuit")?
The reason for this occurence is because there is an energy source, for example a battery, where chemical energy is produced. The battery continuously gives off these charged particles in order for the circuit to function but when battery "dies," it simply means that the reactants have been used up, therefore there is no more chemical energy to provide the charged particles into the circuit.

important terms: direct current (DC) and alternating current (AC)

question/comment/food for thought: I'm sort of confused with "conventional current" and "electron flow," and  the textbook does not make it better because it keeps mixing the two terms together saying that current = electron flow. Not only that but conventional current is the movement from +ve to -ve... but what's moving if it's not the electrons!?!?!?!

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