Resistors (Ohm's Law), Capacitors, and Inductors

Resistors

The symbol for a resistor:

The relationship between the current through a conductor with resistance and the voltage across the same conductor is described by Ohm's law:

$V=IR\,$

where V is the voltage across the conductor, I is the current through the conductor, and R is the resistance of the conductor.

The power dissipated by the resistor is equal to the voltage multiplied by the current:

$P=IV\,$

If $I$ is measured in amps and $V$ in volts, then the power $P$ is in watts.

By plugging in different forms of $V=IR$, we can rewrite $P=IV$ as:

$P=I^{2}R\,$

or

$P={\frac {V^{2}}{R}}.$

Capacitors

The symbol for a capacitor:

A capacitor is a device that stores electric charges. (Do not confuse this with a battery; a battery creates an electric potential difference, but doesn't store charge. A battery is analogous to a water pump, while a capacitor is analogous to a water tank.) At steady state, a capacitor has a constant voltage across it and zero current through it.

The unit of measurement for the capacitance of a capacitor is the farad, which is equal to 1 coulomb per volt.

The charge(q), voltage (v), and capacitance(C) of a capacitor are related as follows:

$q(t)=Cv(t)\,$

where q(t) and v(t) are the values for charge and voltage, expressed as a function of time.

Differentiating both sides with respect to time gives:

$i(t)=C{\frac {dv}{dt}}$

Rearranging and then integrating with respect to time give:

$v(t')={\frac {1}{C}}\int _{t_{0}}^{t'}i(t)dt+v(t_{0})$

If we assume that the charge, voltage, and current of the capacitor are zero at $t_{0}=-\infty$, our equation reduces to:

$v(t')={\frac {1}{C}}\int _{-\infty }^{t'}i(t)dt$

or

$v(t)={\frac {1}{C}}q(t)$,

which is equivalent to the first equation.

Assuming the same zero initial states as before, the energy stored in a capacitor (in joules) is given by the equation:

$u(t)={\frac {1}{2}}Cv^{2}$

Inductors

The symbol for an inductor:

An inductor stores energy in the form of a magnetic field.