Every
class I have attended, and every book I have read, always starts off with
What is Electricity? So I guess I'll follow suit. When I took my
first automotive electricity class, they said that the practical technician
looks at electricity as an invisible force that flows from positive to
negative. Then the next class explained that all matter is composed of
atoms with protons neutrons and electrons and that electrons flowed from
negative to positive. I was starting to be a little confused after a few
more classes and books. I decided that the theory changes every few years,
so maybe the first view was probably a good way for people, who just want
to make it work without letting the smoke out, to look at it. Current theory
is that electrons flow negative to positive and the packets of energy necessary
to move the electrons flows positive to negative. So for the rest of this
class I am arbitrarily going to use the theory that was around when our
bikes were new. Electricity is an invisible force that flows from positive
to negative and can be thought of as behaving much like water in a garden
hose.
What ever it is, we can describe how it
behaves and how it will behave under any situation with mathematical formulas.
But first, the common terms. |
In
this series I will try to demystify electricity, and even get into some
electronics toward the end. I will try to keep the math to a minimum, but
it is very difficult to describe electricity with out some. I will try
to keep the emphasis on the practical side. When there is the opportunity,
I will explain the text book approach, plus all the backyard fixes that
I know of. With all that said, let's jump right in with both feet.
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Basic
Electricity Terms (with Garden Hose Equivalents)
Volt which describes the electromotive
force of the electricity (you can think of voltage as water pressure).
Ampere which describes the intensity
or rate of flow of the electricity (you can think of amps as the size
of the garden hose).
Resistance which is anything that
slows or stops the flow of the electricity (you can think of resistance
as someone bending the hose to slow or stop the flow you will find resistance
referred to as impedance also).
Watt which is the unit of power
(you
can think of watts as the amount of water that flows out on the ground). |
Before all of these
you may see:
Kilo- for 1000
Mega- for 1,000,000
milli- for 1/1,000
micro- for 1/1,000,000
I.E. your electric bill will
be in kilowatts, or you may need to measure milliamps.
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Although there are literally thousands
of formulas, I only try to remember two: Ohm's Law and the Power
Formula. You can deal with most anything built before 1980 (except
radio and TV) with these two formulas. The first, Ohm's law, states that
E
= I x R (Or, electromotive force in volts = intensity in amps,
times the resistance). So those of you that are good at math games already
know that we can change it to read R = E/I or I = E/R. That
first class back in the sixties taught it as a magic circle, with
E
over I x R and you just took the one you wanted to know out of the
circle and did what was left . I.e. If you want to know amps, you take
the I out which leaves E/R, so you divide the volts
by the resistance to find the amps.
The power formula states that P = E
x I or Power (in Watts) = Volts times Amps. It can also be remembered
as a magic circle.
Why do we need to remember these? Suppose
that you just added two driving lights that you bought on Ebay. What size
wire are you going to run? What size fuse?
Simply plug the resistance that you measure
in to Ohm's Law and solve. More on this later - I’m getting ahead
of my self. You may see these written with different symbols, depending
upon when a book was written, but this is the way it was taught when my
Scout was new. We will get back to formulas later. Now I want to go into
electricity’s alter ego.
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Ohm's Law:
E = I x R
Power Formula:
P = E x I
Magic triangle or circle
(click for full-size view
with
comments)
|
Magnetism is the force possessed by some
materials which enables them to attract or repel certain other materials.
Magnets fall into two broad categories: 'natural', like lodestone, and
'artificial', which are magnetized by outside forces. Artificial magnets
may further be classed as 'permanent' and 'temporary'. Permanent magnets
are made of iron or an alloy or even a ceramic that retains its magnetism
for a long time. Temporary magnets are magnets because they are in contact
with a magnet, or were recently in contact with one. All magnets have two
poles, a north and a south. The theory is that the molecules align with
their poles at the same end as the whole. |
Arrangement of molecules
in
steel bar before and after
being magnetized |
Any
magnetic material which has been magnetized will always retain some of
its magnetism, even though in the case of temporary magnets most of the
magnetism is lost once the source of magnetism is removed. This is called
residual magnetism. (We’ll see more on this when we get into generators.)
The area around a magnet that exerts magetic force is called the magnetic
field, and is composed of lines of force that go from the north pole to
the south pole (or the south to the north depending on which theory we
are using this week). If you place a piece of paper over a magnet and sprinkle
iron filings over it, you can see the lines of force.
The strength of the magnet varies with
the number of lines of flux. With more lines equaling more force. Permeablity
is the ablity to transmit lines of flux. Iron, steel, and nickel have a
very high permeablity, sometimes as high as 100, while materials like air,
wood, paper (non magnetic stuff) and brass have a permablity of 1 (why
1 instead of 0? Because the field still exists in them, it just isn't changed).
When a piece of material such as iron, with a permeablity higher than 1,
is brought into a magnetic field, the lines of force are diverted, and
pass through the material because of the permablity. It then becomes a
magnet. This is called magnetic induction; all artificial magnets are made
this way.
We’ll get into electromagnets and some
basic test equipment next time. |
Magnetic flux lines illustrated
with iron filings. |