The main topics covered during week 24 in the Physics course from the Ron Paul Curriculum were: EMF, terminal voltage, resistors, resistance circuits, and Kirchhoff’s law.
Lesson 1:
EMF: something that producing energy and an electromotive force
Resistors in Series: in a series circuit the total resistance is equal to the sum of the individual resistances.
Series circuit rules:
- The current is the same throughout the “loop”
- The voltage across each component (resistor) must add up to the same magnitude as the voltage source.
Resistors in Parallel: The reciprocal of the total resistance is equal to the sum individual resistances reciprocals
Lesson 2:
Practice problems
Lesson 3:
Circuit analysis: Kirchhoff’s laws are used to analyze complex circuits
Kirchhoff’s Laws:
- Junction Rule – based on the fundamental law, conservation of charge
- Loop Rule – based on the fundamental law, conservation of energy
Diagrams:
Problem solving steps:
- Label the currents
- Identify the unknowns
- Apply Kirchhoff’s junction rule
- Apply Kirchhoff’s loop rule
- Solve the equation for the unknowns
Lesson 4:
EMF’s in Series: The total voltage is the algebraic sum of their voltages
EMF’s in Parallel: EMF sources in parallel do not increase voltage, rather they are connected in parallel to reduce the amount of current each source must produce.
louisa neudorf 