- #1
beckett
- 11
- 0
Hi folks,
Sorry for this second post so quick but its bugging me! I have been reconsidering some fundamentals of electrics and have opened a can of worms for myself (thanks Cliff for closing the lid on the previous one). If i consider again a simple closed DC circuit consisting of a wire and a pd applied across it i.e:-
+10V-------------------->------------------0V
If i look upon the circuit as above (i know this is an unconventional view but it better illustrates my dilema), a steady current flows in the direction indicated. By definition each coulomb of charge leaving the +10V end of the wire will have lost 10 joules of energy by the time it reaches the 0V end of the wire. If we imagine the wire itself as series of resistors then we can label the pd along the wire as:
+10V---9---8---7---6---5---4---3---2---1---0V
Imagine a coulomb of charge has traveled all the way to were the pd is 1V, we say it has lost 9 joules and can only possibly lose 1 more before being raised to +10 again by the source.
Now imagine i instantaneously insert a high resistance between the coulomb and the 0V end of the wire. The pd across this resistor would now be tending towards 10V and the coulomb would have to cross this before getting to 0V. This means that the coulomb has lost more than the possible 10V in potential energy? What am i doing wrong??
Thanks in advance
Sorry for this second post so quick but its bugging me! I have been reconsidering some fundamentals of electrics and have opened a can of worms for myself (thanks Cliff for closing the lid on the previous one). If i consider again a simple closed DC circuit consisting of a wire and a pd applied across it i.e:-
+10V-------------------->------------------0V
If i look upon the circuit as above (i know this is an unconventional view but it better illustrates my dilema), a steady current flows in the direction indicated. By definition each coulomb of charge leaving the +10V end of the wire will have lost 10 joules of energy by the time it reaches the 0V end of the wire. If we imagine the wire itself as series of resistors then we can label the pd along the wire as:
+10V---9---8---7---6---5---4---3---2---1---0V
Imagine a coulomb of charge has traveled all the way to were the pd is 1V, we say it has lost 9 joules and can only possibly lose 1 more before being raised to +10 again by the source.
Now imagine i instantaneously insert a high resistance between the coulomb and the 0V end of the wire. The pd across this resistor would now be tending towards 10V and the coulomb would have to cross this before getting to 0V. This means that the coulomb has lost more than the possible 10V in potential energy? What am i doing wrong??
Thanks in advance