Download Algebra 2 Modeling - Circuits

Algebra 2 Modeling – AC Circuits
Name: _____________________________
Electrical AC circuits are all around us (literally! Every single outlet has wiring and creates circuits throughout every
single building).
One equation that describes what is occurring in the walls is: V = I∙R, where V is the voltage in volts, I is the current in
amps, and R is the resistance in ohms (This is very similar to friction between two objects.)
1. The diagram for a circuit looks like this:
Where the R’s are the resistors and the V is the voltage. The current (I) is what kills you when you
start playing with electricity, so it is very important to know how to calculate it. Large voltages can
hurt but cause no lasting harm, however small amounts of current are dangerous and will cause
great harm.
For the problem above, the total series resistance is the sum of the resistances. Since all the resistors are in a line, we add
them together to get the total resistance.
If R1 = 3+2i ohms, R2 = 2-3i ohms. The total resistance is: _________________________________
Once you know the total resistance, and since we know the voltage (from the diagram, V = 10 volts), we can calculate the
amperage.
V = I∙R so we can re-arrange the formula to get us the formula: I = __________.
Simplify the problem below:
2.
In this circuit, we have 3 resistors, R1 = 4-2i ohms, R2 = 2-6i ohms, and R3 =
4+4i ohms, with a power source of 15 volts. What is the amperage?
3.
This is a different type of circuit, where we have series and parallel circuits. The series
circuits are added like before, but the two parallel resistors have to be added differently.
1
1
+
= 𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑙 𝑅
𝑅3 𝑅4
Then you can add the Parallel R to the two series R to find the total R. R1 = 3-3i ohms, R2 =
2+5i ohms.
What is the voltage if the amperage is 4+2i amps?