We will now introduce some methods for analyzing electrical circuits, enabling us, for example, to predict the current through a given circuit element. The circuits we will be considering at this point include two types of elements:
| A
source of the power in the circuit. For the DC (direct current)
circuits we will be working with, this is a battery, such as that found in
flashlights or cars. The rating of the battery in volts is called the electromotive
force (emf) of the battery, and is sometimes given the symbol
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Figure
17.2: A simple battery |
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The convention used is that for a battery supplying power the current comes out of the positive terminal and reenters the negative one. However, when a battery is being charged the current flows in the opposite direction.
| a resistor, which is represented as Fig. 17.3. |
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Figure
17.3: A resistor |
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This can be an actual resistor placed in a circuit, or might be the resistance associated with another element in the circuit, such as the internal resistance of a battery.
Before discussing general methods for analyzing circuits, we first consider two special cases for which some simplifications occur.