We're Everywhere

Classes are in different places now, but that's fine. Everyone will end up at the finish line on time.

B and F Blocks took up the idea of electrical resistance and Ohm's Law. For B Block, this came on the heels of yesterday's Ohm's Law lab, so that lab was used to illustrate the principles in this section. Make sure you understand the concept of resistance, what Ohm's law says about the relationship between resistance, voltage and current, the difference between ohmic and non-ohmic substances and factors that influence an object's resistance. We also jumped into the arena of superconductors, touching on their properties and potential uses.

C Block moved officially into the electrical current zone with a discussion of the nature of current, the concept of drift velocity and the difference between alternating and direct current. On Monday, we add resistance to the mix and remind ourselves of the results you obtained in your Ohm's Law lab.

E Block looked at the idea of electrical power. We're still talking about the rate at which work is done, but this time the work is being done by or on electrical charges through transformations of energy. Joule heating (also called I²R loss) was examine and used to explain why power companies deliver electricity at high voltages and not high currents. On Monday, we take up the task of examining the fundamentals of electric circuits.