AP Physics 1 : Electricity

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for AP Physics 1

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Example Questions

Example Question #1 : Series And Parallel

Determine the total charge stored by a circuit with 2 identical parallel-plate capacitors in parallel with area , and a distance of  between the parallel plates. Assume the space between the parallel plates is a vacuum. The circuit shows a voltage difference of 10V. 

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

To determine total charge stored, we need to add up the capacitance of each capacitor(because they are capacitors in parallel) and multiply by the voltage difference. Recall that for capacitors,

For parallel plate capacitors:

Here, , which is the permittivity of empty space,  is the dielectric constant, which is  since there is only vacuum present, , which is the area of the parallel plates, and , which is the distant between the plates. 

Plug in known values to solve for capacitance.

Each of the two capacitors has capacitance 

Since the capacitors are in parallel, the total capacitance is the sum of each individual capacitance. The total capacitance in the circuit  is given by:

Plug this value into our first equation and solve for the total charge stored.

, where  is the total charge stored in the capacitor. Since 

Example Question #1 : Series And Parallel

What is the total current  flowing through a system with 2 resistors in parallel with resistances of  and , and a battery with voltage difference of 10V? 

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

First we need to determine the overall resistance of the circuit before we know how much current is flowing through. Since the resistors are in parallel, their resistances will add reciprocally:

where  is the total resistance of the circuit. 

Now that we've solved for , we know that the current  flowing through the circuit can be found using Ohm's law:

Example Question #11 : Series And Parallel

Consider two circuits: one contains two resistors wired in series, each with a resistance of , while the other contains two resistors wired in parallel, one with a resistance of  and the other with an unknown resistance. The circuits are completely independent, each having its own  battery, and each drawing a current of . What must the resistance of the unknown resistor be for the two circuits to have the same total resistance?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

The total resistance of a circuit in series can be described by the equation:

The series circuit in ths problem therefore has a resistance of:

The resistance of a circuit wired in parallel has a total resistance of:

We are assuming that the two circuits have the same total resistance, so to find the resistance of the unknown resistor, we set up the following equation:

This, when solved, gives us a resitance of 200 ohms for our unknown element.

Example Question #181 : Electricity And Waves

Three  batteries are connected in series.  What is their equivalent voltage?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

The equivalent voltage of batteries connected in series is the sum of the voltage of each battery, or

In our problem,

Example Question #181 : Electricity And Waves

Three  batteries are connected in parallel.  What is their equivalent voltage?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

The equivalent voltage of batteries connected in parallel is equal to the voltage of 1 battery.

In this problem, 

Note: Connecting batteries in parallel increases the capacity of the battery.

Example Question #12 : Series And Parallel

Four resistors,  and , are arranged as follows.  What is the equivalent resistance of this setup?Screen shot 2015 09 08 at 12.13.13 pm

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

To find the equivalent resistance of this system, we must first find the equivalent resistance of the resistors in parallel, then evaluate the resistors in parallel.

The parallel resistor equivalence is given by the following equation,

In our problem,

The parallel resistors can now be treated as one resistor with the resistance .  To find the total resistance, we add the resistances of  and .

Example Question #181 : Electricity And Waves

Three resistors, , and , are arranged as follows.  What is the equivalent resistance of this setup?Screen shot 2015 09 08 at 12.11.44 pm

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

To find the equivalent resistance of this system, we must first find the equivalent resistance of the resistors in parallel, then evaluate the resistors in parallel.

The parallel resistor equivalence is given by the following equation,

In our problem,

The parallel resistors can now be treated as one resistor with the resistance .  To find the total resistance, we add the resistance of  and .

Example Question #15 : Series And Parallel

Resistors

Four configurations of resistors are shown in the figure. Assume all resistors have the same resistance equal to . Rank the different combinations from largest equivalent resistance to smallest equivalent resistance.

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Let's go through and figure out what the equivalent resistances are.

(A) This is a resistor in parallel with two series resistors. This looks like:

(B) These are just two resistors in series,

(C) This is just one resistor,

(D) All three resistors are in parallel,

Ranking them we see that the largest to smallest values are 

Example Question #182 : Electricity And Waves

A voltage is connected in parallel to two resistors (resistor A and B). Resistor A has twice as much resistance as resistor B. What can you conclude about the voltage across the resistors?

Possible Answers:

Voltage drop across both resistors is the same

Voltage drop across resistor B is twice as much as resistor A

Relative voltage drop between these two resistors cannot be determined from the given information

Voltage drop across resistor A is twice as much as resistor B

Correct answer:

Voltage drop across both resistors is the same

Explanation:

The key hallmark of parallel circuits is that the elements connected in parallel have the same voltage drop across them. It doesn’t matter if the circuit element is a resistor, capacitor, or an inductor; the voltage drop across all elements is the same. This means that the voltage across both resistors A and B is same. On the other hand, circuit elements connected in series have the same current flowing through them; however, they have different voltage drops.

Example Question #1341 : Ap Physics 1

A circuit is made up of a voltage source with three resistors connected in series. The resistors have a resistance of  and the current flowing through one of the resistor is . What is the voltage provided by the voltage source?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

We need to use the principles of circuits and Ohm’s law to solve this question. Recall that circuit elements (in this question resistors) connected in series have the same current flowing through them. The current, therefore, flowing through all three resistors is . To calculate the voltage we need to first calculate an equivalent resistance of the circuit (a single resistor that models the three resistors). Since the resistors are connected in series, we can simply add the resistance of each resistor to get the equivalent resistance, .

Using Ohm’s law we can now calculate the voltage provided.

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