Week 2 - Volts, Amps, and Ohms

This week we began learning the more technical aspects of the course, including measurements, formulas, and tools.

Electrical flow can be broken down into the force, current, and resistance, measured with the following measurements:

        Force = Volts (V)

        Current = Amps (A)

        Resistance = Ohms (Ω)

The relationship between force, current, and resistance can be shown in a formula known as Ohm's Law:

        V=IR

            V=Force/Volts

            I=Current/Amps

            R=Resistance/Ohms

There is a similar formula to find Watts (W), a measurement of energy transfer.

        P=IE

            P=Watts

            E=Volts

            I=Amps

The main types of current are alternating current (AC) and direct current (DC). AC reverses between positive and negative voltage a 60 times a second (in the USA), also known as 60 Hertz (Hz). DC has voltage move in one direction.

Working through Labs 1&2, I learned about breadboards and resistors. The following image is one that I found online of a breadboard just like the ones we are using.

The blue lines show the negative rows where each spot is connected within that row. The red lines show the positive rows that do the same thing. Besides the split in the middle, the other columns are connected to the other parts of said column. This helps create connections to build circuits.

This next image is of four resistors.

Resistors reduce the amount of voltage in a circuit. The stripes are indicators of how much resistance they do. The last stripe is usually gold or silver, but not necessary to determine the amount of resistance. The first three stripes are what are important and their numbers are based on the following list.

• 0 - Black
• 1 - Brown
• 2 - Red
• 3 - Orange
• 4 - Yellow
• 5 - Green
• 6 - Blue
• 7 - Violet
• 8 - Gray
• 9 - White

The first and second stripes are just whatever numbers align, but the third stripe is the amount of zeros following the second number. As an example these are the colors and numbers for the image above.

1. Brown(1) Black(0) Yellow(4) = 100,000
2. Brown(1) Black(0) Red(2) = 1,000
3. Brown(1) Black(0) Orange(3) = 10,000
4. Orange(3) Orange(3) Brown(0) = 330

Finally, the LED circuit that I successfully made for Lab 1 is in the following image: