4.Main Content
Electric circuits and fields
Introduction
Electric circuits make modern life possible. Yet we are aware of electricity only through its effects.
The quest to understand electricity can introduce students to the uses and limitations of physical models. It can also lead to a realisation that electrical phenomena result from a fundamental property of matter - electric charge - a deep mystery at the heart of things.
Collections in this Topic begin with simple DC circuits, introducing ideas about current, potential difference and resistance. Next come experiments involving conduction through liquids and gases. Experiments with AC circuits require an oscilloscope. Finally, there are Collections dealing with electrostatic effects and electric fields.
Experiment collections
- Simple electric circuits
- Current and charge
- Potential difference
- Ohm's law and resistance
- Resistance effects
- Component characteristics
- Electrolysis
- Electrical conduction through gases
- Electrical conductivity
- Using an oscilloscope
- Introductory experiments on AC
- Experimenting with slow AC
- Other AC meters
- Electrostatic charges
- Van de Graaff generator
- Electric fields
Guidance
- Working with simple electrical components
- Introducing electric current
- Electric charge and current - a short history
- Models of electric circuits
- Quantitative ideas in electricity
- Electric current
- Hill diagrams as a model for potential difference
- Further note on component characteristics
- Classroom management in semi-darkness
- Why teach about AC?
- Explaining rms voltage and current
- Electrostatics
- Van de Graaff generator - the basics
- Van de Graaff generator safety
- Electric fields
Updated 9 Apr 2008
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