ECE 3710 Homework 1 Solution Manual

Problem 1-21 Coulomb's Law

We are also given Colulomb's constant and are asked for the magnitude of the electrical force between the two charges. Using the scalar version of Coulomb's Law
1 q2 | |F | = ke |qr 2

r = 20cm.

We are given the elctrical charge of two charges q1 = 3C , q2 = 5C , and the distance between the two charges,

we can obtain the magnitude of the elctrical force between the two given charges;
|F | = 8.988 109
Problem 1-23 Charge and Current

|3106 5106 | (20102 )2

3.3705 3.4N

Since the capacotor stores charge when current ows through it. Charge will be stored when 3A of current ows through the capacitor. We are also told that the capacitor has an initial charge, so we must add the newly stored charge to the initial charge. 3A ows through the capacitor for 2 microseconds 3 C/s 2 s = 6C of charge will be stored in the capacitor due to current ow. Adding in the initial charge of 2C, the net electric charge of the capacitor will be 8C.
Problem 1-30 Voltage

We are given a circuit diagram, the voltage of a few circuit elements within the circuit, and the voltage polarity across every circuit element. Question 1 Asks for the voltage of circuit element B. The key idea that students should remember here is that voltage polarity and voltage amount tells us that the positive terminal of a circuit element will have a voltage amount dierence compared to the negative terminal. For example, with in the given circuit, Circuit element A is known to have 5 V. This means that the voltage at the positive terminal of circuit element A will be 5 volts higher than the voltage of the negative terminal of circuit element A. In the case of circuit element E, since the voltage given is -3 V, the voltage at the positive terminal will be 3 volts lower than the negative terminal. Using this knowledge, we can see that Vab = VA + VB + VG . You can certainly use a dierent path but other paths does not include the voltage of element B, which we are interested in. Thus, VB = Vab VA VG = 4V Question 2 We are asked for the voltage between terminal a and terminal c. If we take the shortest path, Vac = VA + VD + VH = 9V. You may certainly take a dierent path but that will require you to obtain the value of unknown voltages such as VC or VF .
Problem 1-41 Power

Question 1 We are given a circuit element with a certain amount of voltage across it and current owing through, and asked for the power. 1

P = V I = 25W.

Since the current is entering the negative terminal of the circuit element we know that we can obtain the power with

Question 2 From the power we just calculated, the question is asking if the element is generating power or consuming power. Since the power calculated is negative, we know that the circuit element is generating power.

Problem 1-43 Power

Question 1 We are given a circuit element with a certain amount of voltage across it and current owing through, and asked for the power. Since the current is entering the positive terminal of the circuit element we know that we can obtain the power with P = V I = 1.2W. Question 2 Since the power calculated is positive, we know that the circuit element is consuming power.
Problem 1-45 Power

We are given a 60W lightbulb, meaning that it consumes 60 Watts. We are told that it is powered by a 120V power source and the questions asks for the current owing through the device. With the given reference, we are to calculate power using P = V I = 60W. Since we know that V = 120V, we can calculate I = -0.5A.
Problem 1-49 Conservation of Power

We are given a schematic and all power generated or consumed by the elements are given but that of P2 , and the question asks for P2 . Due to the law of conservation of power, meaning that the sum of power of every circuit element in a circuit must equal 0;
5

Pi = P1 + P2 + P3 + P4 + P5 = 0
i=1

Thus, P2 = 6W.
Problem 1-50 Equivalent Circuits

We are given a circuit and ask to select all circuits that are equivalent to the given circuit. This question is made purposely to confuse the students. The one thing to remember is that if the electrical connections are the same, meaning that the same elements make the same connection and no additional connections are made, they are equivalent circuits. All but one of the options, shown below, are equivalent to the given circuit. The circuit shown below has element A connected to element F but the given circuit does not have such connection. Therefore the circuit shown below is not equivalent to the given circuit.

Problem 1-51 Short Circuit

We are given a circuit and asked to nd the equivalent from the options. When we look at the given circuit, due to the fact that the two terminals of R2 and R3 are connected with a short, we know that we can treat R2 and R3 as non exsistant. Thus, the equivalent circuit is the one with the voltage source and R1 .
Problem 1-53 Nodes

We are given a circuit and asked how many unique nodes the circuit has. The thing students should remember is that connections made by circuit elements are all nodes. If the node is not connected to a dierent node, with wires, it becomes a unique node. If nodes are connected to other nodes by wires, the nodes connected together form a single unique node. If we take a look at the circuit, we can see that;
Node A and Node B are connected with a wire to create one unique node Node C and Node D are connected with a wire to create one unique node Node E is an unique node Node F is an unique node Node G, Node H and Node I are connected with a wire to create one unique node.

Therefore, we have 5 unique nodes in the given circuit.