Did you mean | Travel | Economics | Finance | Marketing | Business | Culture | Geography | History | Life | Mathematics | Science | Society | Technology | New site added |
Electrical resistance is a measure of the degree to which an object opposes the passage of an electric current. The SI unit of electrical resistance is the ohm. Its reciprocal quantity is electrical conductance measured in siemens. Resistance is the property of any object or substance of resisting or opposing the flow of an electrical current. The quantity of resistance in an electric circuit determines the amount of current flowing in the circuit for any given voltage applied to the circuit. where
For a wide variety of materials and conditions, the electrical resistance does not depend on the amount of current flowing or the amount of applied voltage. This means that voltage is proportional to current and the proportionality constant is the electrical resistance. This case is described by Ohm's law and such materials are described as ohmic. V can either be measured directly across the object or calculated from a subtraction of voltages relative to a reference point. The former method is simpler for a single object and is likely to be more accurate. There may also be problems with the latter method if the voltage supply is AC and the two measurements from the reference point are not in phase with each other.
Resistive lossWhen a current, I, flows through an object with resistance, R, electrical energy is converted to heat at a rate (power) equal to where
This effect is useful in some applications such as incandescent lighting and electric heating, but is undesirable in power transmission. Common ways to combat resistive loss include using thicker wire and higher voltages. Superconducting wire is used in special applications. Resistance of a conductorDC resistanceAs long as the current density is totally uniform in the conductor, the DC resistance R of a conductor of regular cross section can be computed as where
For practical reasons, almost any connections to a real conductor will almost certainly mean the current density is not totally uniform. However, this formula still provides a good approximation for long thin conductors such as wires. AC resistanceIf a wire conducts high-frequency alternating current then the effective cross sectional area of the wire available for current conduction is diminished. (See skin effect). The Terman formula gives the diameter of wire that will suffer a 10% increase in resistance where
This formula applies to isolated conductors. In a conductor in close proximity to other conductors, the actual resistance is higher because of the proximity effect. Causes of resistanceIn metalsA metal consists of a lattice of atoms, each with a shell of electrons. The outer electrons are free to dissociate from their parent atoms and travel through the lattice, making the metal a conductor. When an electrical potential (a voltage) is applied across the metal, the electrons drift from one end of the conductor to the other under the influence of the electric field. In a real material the atomic lattice is never perfectly regular, so its imperfections scatter the electrons and cause resistance. A rise in temperature causes the atoms to vibrate more strongly, creating even more collisions and increasing the resistance still further. The larger the cross-sectional area of the conductor, the more electrons are available to carry the current, so the lower the resistance. The longer the conductor, the more scattering events occur in each electron's path through the material, so the higher the resistance. 1 In semiconductors and insulatorsSemiconductors are part-way between metals and insulators, like glass; a silicon boule has a grayish metallic sheen, like a metal, but is brittle, like glass. It is possible to manipulate the resistive properties of semiconductor materials by doping those materials with atomic elements, such as arsenic or boron, which create electrons or holes which can move across the material lattice. In ionic liquids/electrolytesIn electrolytes, electrical conduction happens not by band electrons or holes, but by full atomic species traveling, each carrying an electrical charge. The nerve currents in the human body are carried by ionic salts. The resistivity of ionic liquids varies tremendously by the salt concentration - while distilled water is almost an insulator, salt water is a very efficient electrical conductor.
Band theory![]() Quantum mechanics states that the energy of an electron in an atom cannot be any arbitrary value. Rather, there are fixed energy levels which the electrons can occupy, and values in between these levels are impossible. The energy levels are grouped into two bands: the valence band and the conduction band (the latter is generally above the former). Electrons in the conduction band may move freely throughout the substance in the presence of an electrical field. In insulators and semiconductors, the atoms in the substance influence each other such that between the valence band and the conduction band, there exists a forbidden band of energy levels that the electrons simply cannot occupy. In order for a current to flow, a relatively large amount of energy must be furnished to an electron for it to leap across this forbidden gap and into the conduction band. Thus, large voltages yield relatively small currents. Differential resistanceWhen resistance may depend on voltage and current, differential resistance, incremental resistance or slope resistance is defined as the slope of the V-I graph at a particular point, thus: This quantity is sometimes called simply resistance, although the two definitions are equivalent only for an ohmic component such as an ideal resistor. If the V-I graph is not monotonic (i.e. it has a peak or a trough), the differential resistance will be negative for some values of voltage and current. This property is often known as negative resistance, although it is more correctly called negative differential resistance, since the absolute resistance V/I is still positive. Temperature-dependenceThe electric resistance of a typical metal conductor increases linearly with the temperature:
where a is the thermal resistance coefficient. The electric resistance of a typical semiconductor decreases exponentially with the temperature: The electric resistance of electrolytes and insulators is highly nonlinear, and case by case dependent, therefore no generalized equations are given here. See also
External links
What does Electrical resistance mean ? Search with Google !Article on Electrical resistance, category, different spelling or sense |
|
Did you mean: Culture | Geography | History | Life | Mathematics | Science | Society | Technology Economy finance business money economy: Economics | Finance | Marketing | Business | Money | Real Estate | Insurance | Retirement | Microeconomics | Economics Top Search: Kazaa | Sex | Pornography | Games | MySpace | Google | Ebay | Paris Hilton | Carmen Electra | Jessica Simpson | Eminem | MapQuest | Dogs | Jokes | Obituaries | MSN Messenger | Splogs | Ringtones | Casino | Poker | Gambling | Lyrics | Anime | Continents and countries in the world: Japan | United Kingdom | Canada | France | Amsterdam | Monaco | Spain | Capitals Cities | Continents | World | Americas | North America | South America | Europe | Africa | Eurasia | Oceania | Antarctica | Asia | Australia A web travel guide for your holidays, hotel and plane tickets: Travel guide and holidays French Version, guide de voyage dans le monde: Voyage et vacances Visit partners of Did you mean Travel: Partners Site Map articles begining from 0 to 9 and A to Z: Site Map 0 to A | Site Map B to C | Site Map D to Z Cours d'anglais, cours de langues pour debutant: Cours d'anglais Annuaire france regions et tourisme: Annuaire OuiX Sexe sur AbSexe, videos porno et annuaire sexe: Ab Sexe Url Rewriting by Atuvu Referencement This work is licensed under a GNU Free Documentation License. Texts derived from WikiPedia Electrical resistance ©2006 Did you mean Copyright Notice Page Electrical resistance cached on Sunday 07th of September 2008 11:22:41 PM |