X-Nico

20 unusual facts about electric current


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These devices support an input voltage anywhere from a couple of volts over the intended output voltage, up to a maximum of 35 to 40 volts depending on the make, and typically provide 1 or 1.5 amperes of current (though smaller or larger packages may have a lower or higher current rating).

Amplifier

There are four basic types of electronic amplifier: the voltage amplifier, the current amplifier, the transconductance amplifier, and the transresistance amplifier.

Analog chip

The voltage and current at specified points in the circuits of an analog chips vary continuously in time.

Beta dispersion

Beta dispersion is the phenomenon associated with the ability of a biological cell membrane to filter out low frequency currents and allow high frequency currents to pass through.

Comparator

In electronics, a comparator is a device that compares two voltages or currents and outputs a digital signal indicating which is larger.

Electric current

In certain applications, different waveforms are used, such as triangular or square waves.

Gate Drivers

The switching time of a transistor is inversely proportional to the amount of current used to charge the gate.

Linear circuit

A linear circuit is an electronic circuit in which, for a sinusoidal input voltage of frequency f, any steady-state output of the circuit (the current through any component, or the voltage between any two points) is also sinusoidal with frequency f.

Modified nodal analysis

The MNA uses the element's Branch Constitutive Equations or BCE, i.e., their voltage - current characteristic and the Kirchhoff's circuit laws.

Motor soft starter

Electrical soft starters can use solid state devices to control the current flow and therefore the voltage applied to the motor.

Nonlinear element

In an electric circuit, a nonlinear element or nonlinear device is an electrical element which does not have a linear relationship between current and voltage.

Operational transconductance amplifier

The operational transconductance amplifier (OTA) is an amplifier whose differential input voltage produces an output current.

Physical quantity

Important and convenient derived quantities such as densities, fluxes, flows, currents are associated with many quantities.

Power quality compression algorithm

These parameters may include, for example, current and voltage RMS, phase relationship between waveforms of a multi-phase signal, power factor, frequency, THD, active power (KW), reactive power (Kvar), apparent power (KVA) and active energy (KWh), reactive energy (Kvarh) and apparent energy (KVAh) and many more.

Silicon-controlled rectifier

A silicon-controlled rectifier (or semiconductor-controlled rectifier) is a four-layer solid state current controlling device.

Snubber

Snubbers are frequently used in electrical systems with an inductive load where the sudden interruption of current flow leads to a sharp rise in voltage across the current switching device, in accordance with Faraday's law.

Superposition theorem

The superposition theorem for electrical circuits states that for a linear system the response (voltage or current) in any branch of a bilateral linear circuit having more than one independent source equals the algebraic sum of the responses caused by each independent source acting alone, while all other independent sources are replaced by their internal impedances.

Transmission line

The telegrapher's equations (or just telegraph equations) are a pair of linear differential equations which describe the voltage and current on an electrical transmission line with distance and time.

Voltage ladder

Since the ladder is a series circuit, the current is the same throughout, and is given by the total voltage divided by the total resistance (V/Req), which is just the sum of each series resistor in the ladder.

Voltage spike

While generally referred to as a voltage spike, the phenomenon in question is actually an energy spike, in that it is measured not in volts but in joules; a transient response defined by a mathematical product of voltage, current, and time.


Abampere

The abampere (aA), also called the biot after Jean-Baptiste Biot, is the basic electromagnetic unit of electric current in the emu-cgs system of units (electromagnetic cgs).

Compartmental modelling of dendrites

Originally the dendrites were thought to have constant conductance and current but now it has been understood that they may have active Voltage-gated ion channels, which influences the firing properties of the neuron and also the response of neuron to synaptic inputs.

Constant-voltage speaker system

Typically, a power company will step up the voltage of the power being transmitted, which correspondingly reduces the current and therefore also reduces the power loss during transmission.

Display driver

The display driver will typically accept commands and data using an industry-standard general-purpose serial or parallel interface, such as TTL, CMOS, RS232, SPI, voltage, current, timing and demultiplexing to make the display show the desired text or image.

Fleming's left-hand rule for motors

When electrons, or any charged particles, flow in the same direction (for example, as an electric current in an electrical conductor, such as a metal wire) they generate a cylindrical magnetic field that wraps round the conductor (as discovered by Hans Christian Ørsted).