Chapter 2. Circuit Concepts, Variables and Elements

The objectives of this chapter are to introduce:

• concepts such as voltage, current, power, and energy that we will be using throughout the text. Some of these concepts are likely to be familiar, either from a physics course or perhaps from everyday experience (we’ve all changed the 1.5V AAA, AA, or other size batteries in devices). We start with a review of some basic physics so as to familiarize (or re-familiarize) ourselves with some fundamental ideas;
• circuits, circuit components, schematics, and the assembly and testing of circuits using solderless breadboards and multimeters;
• circuit terms (such as nodes and loops) and models (such as ideal independent and dependent voltage sources and perfect conductors);
• electronic devices, such as light-emitting diodes (LED’s);
• laws governing the behavior of currents and voltages in circuits;

After this chapter, you should be able to:

• begin to draw and interpret circuit schematics;
• analyze simple circuits, determining the voltages, currents, power, and energy levels associated with circuit elements;
• assemble and test simple circuits using solderless breadboards and multimeters