KAMPALA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING AND APPLIED SCIENCES

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL, TELECOMMUNICATION AND COMPUTER
ENGFINEERING

DEL1202/ELE1202 CIRCUIT THEORY I

LECTURE NOTES

Credit Units (CU): 03

Status: Core
Course Instructor: Ogwal Emmanuel
Contacts: Tel: +256 789275457 (Calls & WhatsApp) / +256 754646314 (Calls)
Email: emmanuel.ogwal@kiu.ac.ug

COURSE OUTLINE
Unit 1: Basic Concepts
Unit 2: Basic Laws
Unit 3: Methods of Analysis
Unit 4: Circuit Theorems
 UNIT 1: BASIC CONCEPTS
ELECTRIC CIRCUIT
Engineers use electrical circuits to solve problems that are important in modern society, such as
in the generation, transmission and consumption of electrical power and energy
In electrical engineering, we are often interested in communicating or transferring energy from
one point to another. To do this requires an interconnection of electrical devices. Such
interconnection is referred to as an electric circuit, and each component of the circuit is known as
an element.

An electric circuit is an interconnection of electrical elements.

A simple electric circuit consisting of three basic elements; battery, lamp, and conducting wires
is shown in fig. below. Applications: search light, flash light, etc

A complicated real electric circuit of a radio transmitter is shown in fig. below. Although it seems
complicated, it can be analyzed using various analytical techniques and computer software
applications in order to describe the behavior of such a circuit-how does it respond to a given
input? how do the interconnected elements and devices in the circuit interact?
CHARGE AND CURRENT
Charge

Charge is an electrical property of the atomic particles of which matter consists, measured in
coulombs (C).

Charge is a basic SI unit denoted by symbol q, measured in Coulombs (C)

Charge of single electron is 1.602*10-19 C
One Coulomb is quite large, 6.24*1018 electrons.
Charge is always multiple of electron charge.
Charge cannot be created or destroyed, only transferred.
Current
Electric charge is mobile; that is, it can be transferred from one place to another, where it can be
converted to another form of energy.
When a conducting wire is connected to a battery, the charges are compelled to move; positive
charges move in one direction while negative charges move in the opposite direction. This motion
of charges creates electric current.

It is conventional to take the current flow as the movement of positive charges. That is, opposite
to the flow of negative charges
Current, i, is measured as charge moved per unit time through an element.

Electric current is the time rate of change of charge, measured in amperes (A).

dq
i
dt
The charge transferred between time to and t is obtained by integrating both sides of equation
above:
DC Vs AC Current

A direct current (dc) is a current that remains constant with time.

Such current is represented by the capital letter I, time varying current uses the lowercase, i
A common source of DC is a battery.

An alternating current (ac) is a current that varies sinusoidally with time.

Mains power is an example of AC used in household to run the air conditioner, refrigerator,
washing machine, and other electric appliances

Direction of Current
The direction of current flow is conventionally taken as the direction of positive charge
movement.
Based on this convention, a current of 5 A may be represented positively or negatively. In other
words, a negative current of 5A flowing in one direction is the same as a current of 5A flowing in
the opposite direction.
A positive current through a component is the same as a negative current flowing in the opposite
direction.
Example 1.1

Practice Problem 1.1

The total charge entering a terminal is given by 𝑞 = (10 − 10𝑒 −2𝑡 ) 𝑚𝐶. find the current at 𝑡 =
1.0𝑠.

Example 1.2
VOLTAGE
To move the electron in a conductor in a particular direction requires some work or energy transfer.
This work is performed by an external electromotive force (emf), typically represented by the
battery
This emf is also known as voltage or potential difference.
The voltage between two points a and b in an electric circuit is the energy (or work) needed to
move a unit charge from a to b; mathematically,

Voltage (or potential difference) is the energy required to move a unit charge through an
element, measured in volts (V).

Current and voltage are the two basic variables in electric circuits. The common term signal is
used for an electric quantity such as a current or a voltage (or even electromagnetic wave) when
it is used for conveying information. Engineers prefer to call such variables signals rather than
mathematical functions of time because of their importance in communications and other
disciplines.
Like electric current, a constant voltage is called a dc voltage and is represented by V, whereas a
sinusoidally time-varying voltage is called an ac voltage and is represented by v. A dc voltage is
commonly produced by a battery; ac voltage is produced by an electric generator.
POWER AND ENERGY
Power
Power is the time rate of expending or absorbing energy, measured in watts (W).
Denoted by p
Circuit Elements that absorb power have a positive value of p
Circuit Elements that produce/supply power have a negative value of p

dw
p p  mvi
dt
Passive Sign Convention
The power absorbed or supplied by an element is the product of the voltage across the element
and the current through it.
If the power has a positive sign, power is being delivered to or absorbed by the element. If, on
the other hand, the power has a negative sign, power is being supplied by the element. But how
do we know when the power has a negative or a positive sign?

Reference polarities for power using the passive sign convention: (a) absorbing power, (b)
supplying power.
Current direction and voltage polarity play a major role in determining the sign of power
The voltage polarity and current direction must conform with those shown in Fig.(a) in order for
the power to have a positive sign. This is known as the passive sign convention
When the voltage and current directions conform to Fig.(b), we have the active sign convention
and power will have a negative sign

Passive sign convention is satisfied when the current enters through the positive terminal of an
element and p = +vi. If the current enters through the negative terminal, p = -vi
Energy
The law of conservation of energy must be obeyed in any electric circuit. For this reason, the
algebraic sum of power in a circuit, at any instant of time, must be zero:

This again confirms the fact that the total power supplied to the circuit must balance the total
power absorbed known as the Tellegen’s theorem.

Tellegen’s theorem states that the sum of the powers absorbed by all elements in an electrical
network is zero. Another statement of this theorem is that the power supplied in a network is
exactly equal to the power absorbed.

Checking to verify that Tellegen’s theorem is satisfied for a particular network is one way to
check our calculations when analyzing electrical networks.

The energy absorbed or supplied by an element from time to time t is

Energy is the capacity to do work, measured in joules (J).

Example 1.3
Practice Problem 1.3a

Find the power delivered to an element at 𝑡 = 5 𝑚𝑠 if the current remains the same but the
voltage is: (a) 𝑣 = 2𝑖 𝑉

Practice Problem 1.3b

Answer: i) 2.945 mC, ii) −720𝑒 −4𝑡 𝜇𝑊, iii) −180 𝜇𝐽

CIRCUIT ELEMENTS
An element is the basic building block of a circuit. An electric circuit is simply an
interconnection of the elements. Circuit analysis is the process of determining voltages across (or
the currents through) the elements of the circuit
Two types of elements found in electric circuits: passive elements and active elements.

An active element is capable of generating energy while a passive element is not.

Examples of passive elements are resistors, capacitors, and inductors.

Typical active elements include generators, batteries, and operational amplifiers
The most important active elements are voltage or current sources that generally deliver power to
the circuit connected to them. There are two kinds of sources: independent and dependent
sources.

An ideal independent source is an active element that provides a specified voltage or current that
is completely independent of other circuit elements.

An ideal dependent (or controlled) source is an active element in which the source quantity is
controlled by another voltage or current.

Dependent sources are usually designated by diamond-shaped symbols

There are four possible types of dependent sources, namely:
1. A voltage-controlled voltage source (VCVS).
2. A current-controlled voltage source (CCVS).
3. A voltage-controlled current source (VCCS).
4. A current-controlled current source (CCCS).

The source on the right is a current-controlled voltage source controlled by the current 𝑖 passing
through element C.
Dependent sources are useful in modelling elements such as transistors, operational amplifiers,
and integrated circuits

Example 1.4

Calculate the power supplied or absorbed by each element in Fig below.

In agreement with Tellegen’s theorem, the total power supplied equals the total power absorbed.

Practice Problem 1.4a

Compute the power absorbed or supplied by each component of the circuit in Fig above.
Practice Problem 1.4b

Answer: 𝐼𝑜 = 1 𝐴

Application
Two practical applications of the concepts developed in unit 1.
 TV picture tube.
One important application of the motion of electrons is found in both the transmission
and reception of TV signals. At the transmission end, a TV camera reduces a scene from
an optical image to an electrical signal. Scanning is accomplished with a thin beam of
electrons in an iconoscope camera tube. At the receiving end, the image is reconstructed
by using a cathode-ray tube (CRT) located in the TV receiver
 Electric bills
The second application deals with how an electric utility company charges their
customers. The cost of electricity depends upon the amount of energy consumed in
kilowatt-hours (kWh).

References:
Alexander, C. K., & Alexander, C. K. (n.d.). Fundamentals of Electric Circuits.