Subject: Fundamentals in Electricity and Electronics

Topic: Basic Concept of Electricity

Static Electricity
Conductors, Insulators, and Electron Flow
What Are Electric Circuits?
Prepared By: Richie Mumar Cuizon Grade Level: 11-ICT
st
Semester: 1 Week: 2

Learning Competencies (ELC724331)

1. Recognized the Basic Concepts of electricity
2. Learning its role and function.
3. Develop a willingness to explore more about electricity.

General Instructions in Accomplish the Module:

1. Activities and Performance Tasks contained in this module are for Enhancement of Learning
purposes only. Students can answer them for mastery learning but it is not required to be
answered.
2. Answer Assessment only (last page of the module). This is ONLY required to be answered by
the students since the scores are to be recorded for the computation of grades. Please detach
the page if you are done answering it. You can also attach additional sheet of paper if needed.
Then, submit it to the class adviser. Thanks.

TO OUR DEAR STUDENT

A BLESSED DAY!

This module contains different instructional materials with activities that will
help you in stepping forward to next level.

If you complete with workmanship exposing in constant practice and

familiarization of the instruction and theory, this will grant you an excellent mastery
of the course that lead you in easy Installing and Configuring Computer System.

Please be guided accordingly, you may approach your respective teacher for
any question and clarification.

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HOW TO USE THIS MODULE

Fundamentals in Electricity and electronics module used to build a basic foundation of all
devices using electricity as well as its role and function.

In this module, you will read and comprehend all information and complete the learning activities in
order to achieve the expected learning Outcome. In each learning outcome are Information Sheets,
Self checks, operation sheets and task/job sheets. Perform the activities accordingly. Approach your
teacher for any further question and clarification.

Please Note:

1. Read and understand the data information in each section Complete the “what I
understand”.

2. Please be guided accordingly in performing of all things on the way.

Introduction

This module is designed to develop Knowledge, Skills, attitudes and Passion of learners in
accordance with industry standards. Mastery of this will lead you to get the National Certificate level
II.

It provides Data information and activities to develop desirable values, skills and understanding
by providing concrete information about what electricity and electronics all about.

What Should I Learn?

At the end of the lesson, Learners expected to:

1. Know the following:

 Static Electricity
 Conductors, Insulators, and Electron Flow
 What Are Electric Circuits?
 Voltage and Current
 Resistance
 Voltage and Current in a Practical Circuit
 Conventional Versus Electron Flow

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What Should I Learn?

Instruction: Read carefully Lesson 1and 2, test what you learn and do Self-Evaluation to know if how
far you learn from the lesson.

Chapter 1 - Basic Concepts Of Electricity

A. Direct Current (DC)

Modern life could not exist if it were not for electricity and electronics. The history of
electricity starts more than two thousand years ago, with the Greek philosopher Thales being
the earliest known researcher into electricity. But it was Alessandro Volta who created the most
common DC power source, the battery (for this invention the unit Volt was named after him).

Direct current (also known as DC) is the flow of charged particles in one unchanging direction
(most commonly found as electron flow through conductive materials). DC can be found in just
about every home and electronic device, as it is more practical (compared to AC from power
stations) for many consumer devices. Just a few of the places where you can find direct current
are batteries, phones, computers, cars, TVs, calculators, and even lightning.

B.Static Electricity
It was discovered centuries ago that certain types of materials would mysteriously attract one
another after being rubbed together. For example, after rubbing a piece of silk against a piece of
glass, the silk and glass would tend to stick together. Indeed, there was an attractive force that
could be demonstrated even when the two materials were separated:

Glass and silk aren’t the only materials known to behave like this. Anyone who has ever
brushed up against a latex balloon only to find that it tries to stick to them has experienced this
same phenomenon. Paraffin wax and wool cloth are another pair of materials early
experimenters recognized as manifesting attractive forces after being rubbed together:

This phenomenon became even more interesting when it was discovered that identical
materials, after having been rubbed with their respective cloths, always repelled each other:

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It was also noted that when a piece of glass rubbed with silk was exposed to a piece of wax
rubbed with wool, the two materials would attract one another:

Furthermore, it was found that any material demonstrating properties of attraction or

repulsion after being rubbed could be classed into one of two distinct categories:
attracted to glass and repelled by wax, or repelled by glass and attracted to wax. It was
either one or the other: there were no materials found that would be attracted to or
repelled by both glass and wax, or that reacted to one without reacting to the other.

More attention was directed toward the pieces of cloth used to do the rubbing. It was
discovered that after rubbing two pieces of glass with two pieces of silk cloth, not only
did the glass pieces repel each other but so did the cloths. The same phenomenon
held for the pieces of wool used to rub the wax:

Now, this was really strange to witness. After all, none of these objects were visibly
altered by the rubbing, yet they definitely behaved differently than before they were
rubbed. Whatever change took place to make these materials attract or repel one
another was invisible.

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Some experimenters speculated that invisible “fluids” were being transferred from one
object to another during the process of rubbing and that these “fluids” were able to
effect a physical force over a distance. Charles Dufay was one of the early
experimenters who demonstrated that there were definitely two different types of
changes wrought by rubbing certain pairs of objects together. The fact that there was
more than one type of change manifested in these materials was evident by the fact
that there were two types of forces produced: attraction and repulsion. The hypothetical
fluid transfer became known as a charge.

One pioneering researcher, Benjamin Franklin, came to the conclusion that there was
only one fluid exchanged between rubbed objects, and that the two different “charges”
were nothing more than either an excess or a deficiency of that one fluid. After
experimenting with wax and wool, Franklin suggested that the coarse wool removed
some of this invisible fluid from the smooth wax, causing an excess of fluid on the wool
and a deficiency of fluid on the wax. The resulting disparity in fluid content between the
wool and wax would then cause an attractive force, as the fluid tried to regain its former
balance between the two materials.

Postulating the existence of a single “fluid” that was either gained or lost through
rubbing accounted best for the observed behavior: that all these materials fell neatly
into one of two categories when rubbed, and most importantly, that the two active
materials rubbed against each other always fell into opposing categories as evidenced
by their invariable attraction to one another. In other words, there was never a time
where two materials rubbed against each other both became either positive or
negative.

Following Franklin’s speculation of the wool rubbing something off of the wax, the type
of charge that was associated with rubbed wax became known as “negative” (because
it was supposed to have a deficiency of fluid) while the type of charge associated with
the rubbing wool became known as “positive” (because it was supposed to have an
excess of fluid). Little did he know that his innocent conjecture would cause much
confusion for students of electricity in the future!

Precise measurements of electrical charge were carried out by the French physicist
Charles Coulomb in the 1780s using a device called a torsional balance measuring the
force generated between two electrically charged objects. The results of Coulomb’s
work led to the development of a unit of electrical charge named in his honor, the
coulomb. If two “point” objects (hypothetical objects having no appreciable surface
area) were equally charged to a measure of 1 coulomb, and placed 1 meter
(approximately 1 yard) apart, they would generate a force of about 9 billion newtons
(approximately 2 billion pounds), either attracting or repelling depending on the types of
charges involved. The operational definition of a coulomb as the unit of electrical
charge (in terms of force generated between point charges) was found to be equal to
an excess or deficiency of about 6,250,000,000,000,000,000 electrons. Or, stated in
reverse terms, one electron has a charge of about 0.00000000000000000016
coulombs. Being that one electron is the smallest known carrier of electric charge, this
last figure of charge for the electron is defined as the elementary charge.

It was discovered much later that this “fluid” was actually composed of extremely small
bits of matter called electrons, so named in honor of the ancient Greek word for amber:
another material exhibiting charged properties when rubbed with cloth

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What is Static Electricity?

The result of an imbalance of this “fluid” (electrons) between objects is called static electricity.
It is called “static” because the displaced electrons tend to remain stationary after being moved
from one insulating material to another. In the case of wax and wool, it was determined through
further experimentation that electrons in the wool actually transferred to the atoms in the wax,
which is exactly opposite of Franklin’s conjecture! In honor of Franklin’s designation of the
wax’s charge being “negative” and the wool’s charge being “positive,” electrons are said to
have a “negative” charging influence. Thus, an object whose atoms have received a surplus of
electrons is said to be negatively charged, while an object whose atoms are lacking electrons is
said to be positively charged, as confusing as these designations may seem. By the time the true
nature of electric “fluid” was discovered, Franklin’s nomenclature of electric charge was too
well established to be easily changed, and so it remains to this day.

Michael Faraday proved (1832) that static electricity was the same as that produced by a battery
or a generator. Static electricity is, for the most part, a nuisance. Black powder and smokeless
powder have graphite added to prevent ignition due to static electricity. It causes damage to
sensitive semiconductor circuitry. While it is possible to produce motors powered by high
voltage and low current characteristics of static electricity, this is not economic. The few
practical applications of static electricity include xerographic printing, the electrostatic air filter,
and the high voltage Van de Graaff generator.

Conductors, Insulators, and Electron Flow

The electrons of different types of atoms have different degrees of freedom to move around.
With some types of materials, such as metals, the outermost electrons in the atoms are so
loosely bound that they chaotically move in the space between the atoms of that material by
nothing more than the influence of room-temperature heat energy. Because these virtually
unbound electrons are free to leave their respective atoms and float around in the space between
adjacent atoms, they are often called free electrons.

Conductors vs Insulators
In other types of materials such as glass, the atoms’ electrons have very little freedom to move
around. While external forces such as physical rubbing can force some of these electrons to
leave their respective atoms and transfer to the atoms of another material, they do not move
between atoms within that material very easily.
This relative mobility of electrons within a material is known as electric conductivity.
Conductivity is determined by the types of atoms in a material (the number of protons in each
atom’s nucleus determines its chemical identity) and how the atoms are linked together with
one another. Materials with high electron mobility (many free electrons) are called conductors,
while materials with low electron mobility (few or no free electrons) are called insulators. Here
are a few common examples of conductors and insulators:

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 Conductors  Insulators
 silver  glass
 copper  rubber
 gold  oil
 aluminum  asphalt
 iron  fiberglass
 steel  porcelain
 brass  ceramic
 bronze  quartz
 mercury  (dry) cotton
 graphite  (dry) paper
 dirty water  (dry) wood
 concrete  plastic
 air
 diamond
 pure water

It must be understood that not all conductive materials have the same level of conductivity, and
not all insulators are equally resistant to electron motion. Electrical conductivity is analogous to
the transparency of certain materials to light: materials that easily “conduct” light are called
“transparent,” while those that don’t are called “opaque.” However, not all transparent materials
are equally conductive to light. Window glass is better than most plastics, and certainly better
than “clear” fiberglass. So it is with electrical conductors, some being better than others.
For instance, silver is the best conductor in the “conductors” list, offering easier passage for
electrons than any other material cited. Dirty water and concrete are also listed as conductors,
but these materials are substantially less conductive than any metal.
It should also be understood that some materials experience changes in their electrical
properties under different conditions. Glass, for instance, is a very good insulator at room
temperature but becomes a conductor when heated to a very high temperature. Gases such as
air, normally insulating materials, also become conductive if heated to very high temperatures.
Most metals become poorer conductors when heated, and better conductors when cooled. Many
conductive materials become perfectly conductive (this is called superconductivity) at
extremely low temperatures.

Electron Flow / Electric Current

While the normal motion of “free” electrons in a conductor is random, with no particular
direction or speed, electrons can be influenced to move in a coordinated fashion through a
conductive material. This uniform motion of electrons is what we call electricity or electric
current. To be more precise, it could be called dynamic electricity in contrast to static
electricity, which is an unmoving accumulation of electric charge. Just like water flowing
through the emptiness of a pipe, electrons are able to move within the empty space within and
between the atoms of a conductor. The conductor may appear to be solid to our eyes, but any
material composed of atoms is mostly empty space! The liquid-flow analogy is so fitting that
the motion of electrons through a conductor is often referred to as a “flow.”
A noteworthy observation may be made here. As each electron moves uniformly through a
conductor, it pushes on the one ahead of it, such that all the electrons move together as a group.

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The starting and stopping of electron flow through the length of a conductive path is virtually
instantaneous from one end of a conductor to the other, even though the motion of each electron
may be very slow. An approximate analogy is that of a tube filled end-to-end with marbles:

The tube is full of marbles, just as a conductor is full of free electrons ready to be moved by an
outside influence. If a single marble is suddenly inserted into this full tube on the left-hand side,
another marble will immediately try to exit the tube on the right. Even though each marble only
traveled a short distance, the transfer of motion through the tube is virtually instantaneous from
the left end to the right end, no matter how long the tube is. With electricity, the overall effect
from one end of a conductor to the other happens at the speed of light: a swift 186,000 miles per
second!!! Each individual electron, though, travels through the conductor at a much slower
pace.

Electron Flow Through Wire

If we want electrons to flow in a certain direction to a certain place, we must provide the proper
path for them to move, just as a plumber must install piping to get water to flow where he or she
wants it to flow. To facilitate this, wires are made of highly conductive metals such as copper or
aluminum in a wide variety of sizes.
Remember that electrons can flow only when they have the opportunity to move in the space
between the atoms of a material. This means that there can be electric current only where there
exists a continuous path of conductive material providing a conduit for electrons to travel
through. In the marble analogy, marbles can flow into the left-hand side of the tube (and,
consequently, through the tube) if and only if the tube is open on the right-hand side for marbles
to flow out. If the tube is blocked on the right-hand side, the marbles will just “pile up” inside
the tube, and marble “flow” will not occur. The same holds true for electric current: the
continuous flow of electrons requires there be an unbroken path to permit that flow. Let’s look
at a diagram to illustrate how this works:

A thin, solid line (as shown above) is the conventional symbol for a continuous piece of wire.
Since the wire is made of a conductive material, such as copper, its constituent atoms have
many free electrons which can easily move through the wire. However, there will never be a
continuous or uniform flow of electrons within this wire unless they have a place to come from
and a place to go. Let’s add a hypothetical electron “Source” and “Destination:”

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Now, with the Electron Source pushing new electrons into the wire on the left-hand side,
electron flow through the wire can occur (as indicated by the arrows pointing from left to right).
However, the flow will be interrupted if the conductive path formed by the wire is broken:

Electrical Continuity
Since air is an insulating material, and an air gap separates the two pieces of wire, the once-
continuous path has now been broken, and electrons cannot flow from Source to Destination.
This is like cutting a water pipe in two and capping off the broken ends of the pipe: water can’t
flow if there’s no exit out of the pipe. In electrical terms, we had a condition of
electrical continuity when the wire was in one piece, and now that continuity is broken with the
wire cut and separated.
If we were to take another piece of wire leading to the Destination and simply make physical
contact with the wire leading to the Source, we would once again have a continuous path for
electrons to flow. The two dots in the diagram indicate physical (metal-to-metal) contact
between the wire pieces:

Now, we have continuity from the Source, to the newly-made connection, down, to the right,
and up to the Destination. This is analogous to putting a “tee” fitting in one of the capped-off
pipes and directing water through a new segment of pipe to its destination. Please take note that
the broken segment of wire on the right-hand side has no electrons flowing through it because it
is no longer part of a complete path from Source to Destination.
It is interesting to note that no “wear” occurs within wires due to this electric current, unlike
water-carrying pipes which are eventually corroded and worn by prolonged flows. Electrons do
encounter some degree of friction as they move, however, and this friction can generate heat in
a conductor. This is a topic we’ll explore in much greater detail later.

What Are Electric Circuits?

You might have been wondering how charges can continuously flow in a uniform direction
through wires without the benefit of these hypothetical Sources and Destinations. In order for
the Source-and-Destination scheme to work, both would have to have an infinite capacity for
charges in order to sustain a continuous flow!

Using the marble-and-tube analogy from the previous page on conductors, insulators, and
electron flow, the marble source and marble destination buckets would have to be infinitely
large to contain enough marble capacity for a “flow” of marbles to be sustained.

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What Is a Circuit?
The answer to this paradox is found in the concept of a circuit: a never-ending looped pathway
for charge carriers. If we take a wire, or many wires, joined end-to-end, and loop it around so
that it forms a continuous pathway, we have the means to support a uniform flow of charge
without having to resort to infinite Sources and Destinations:

Each charge carrier advancing clockwise in this circuit pushes on the one in front of it, which
pushes on the one in front of it, and so on, and so on, just like a hula-hoop filled with marbles.
Now, we have the capability of supporting a continuous flow of charge indefinitely without the
need for infinite supplies and dumps. All we need to maintain this flow is a continuous means
of motivation for those charge carriers, which we’ll address in the next section of this chapter
on voltage and current.

What Does It Mean When a Circuit Is Broken?

Continuity is just as important in a circuit as it is in a straight piece of wire. Just as in the
example with the straight piece of wire between the Source and Destination, any break in this
circuit will prevent charge from flowing through it:

An important principle to realize here is that it doesn’t matter where the break occurs. Any
discontinuity in the circuit will prevent charge flow throughout the entire circuit. Unless there is
a continuous, unbroken loop of conductive material for charge carriers to flow through, a
sustained flow simply cannot be maintained\

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