Current, Voltage, and Power for Alternating Current
- With alternating current, electric potential (Voltage), and current are constantly changing, and this causes circuits to behave slightly differently.
- Electrons in alternating current circuits move back and forth without getting anywhere.
- Never-the-less, energy is still dissipated in the circuit, even though electrons don't move anywhere
- One Ampere in Alternating Circuits - the current that produces the same heating effect in a given resistor as does one direct current Ampere.
- For Alternating current,
- one Ampere (A) maximum current, will not produce as much heat as one Ampere direct current
- This is due to the fact that the current is not always one Ampere maximum. It fluctuates between +1 A, and -1 A.
- The effective value for alternating current (Ieff) has been experimentally found to be 0.707 time its Maximum value (Imax). Therefore,
Ieff = 0.707 Imax
- One Volt in alternating current circuits - the electric potential difference that produces the same effect in an alternating current circuit as one Volt in a direct current circuit.
- Similarly for voltage as with current
Veff = 0.707 Vmax
Proof