SCHEMATIC DIAGRAMS

This section lists the main components of d.c. (direct current) circuits that you will encounter in your physics classes.

This is a source of emf (electromotive force), with a voltage of , measured in units of volts, V. The most common source you will see will be a battery.

This is a resistance, measured in units ohms ohms, . Most often it will be a resistor. However, wires connecting parts of a circuit are really not resistance-free. We can model this real-life case by putting a 'resistor' in the circuit which has the same resistance as the wires would have. Thus the wires can still be considered resistance-free since their resistance is represented by an additional resistor.

This is a capacitor, with capacitance C measured in units of farads, F. The perfect capacitor will have no resistance (or inductance; see next), and we will assume that this symbol represents such an ideal capacitor. If a capacitor is not ideal, that is, it has some resistance (or inductance) associated with it, then we can model this by putting a 'resistor' (or inductor) in parallel with the capacitor. This resistor (or inductor) will have the same resistance (or inductance) as the non-ideal capacitor.

This is an inductor, with inductance L, measured in units of henrys, H. To model a non-ideal inductor in a circuit (an inductor with an associated resistance or capacitance) we can put a resistor in series or a capacitor in parallel with the inductor. Giving these the same values as the inductor will represent an imperfect inductor

When current is flowing through an LED the voltage on the positive leg is about 1.4 volts higher than the voltage on the negative side. Remember that there is no resistance to limit the current so a resistor must be used in series with the LED to avoid destroying it.

© Department of Physics, University of Wealth Guelph