Honors Physics: Unit 6 – Electricity and Magnetism
Ideas/Concepts to Study (not limited to but this gives you an overall depth to set you up well):
1) What is electric potential energy?
a. When will a positive work be needed on a charged particle?
b. What will happen when a charged particle is let go in an electric field?
2) What is the definition of voltage?
a. How does voltage help to create a flow of charge?
b. How does charge flow in a circuit (from area of ________ voltage to areas of ______ voltage)
c. Where is the voltage the highest in any circuit? Where is the voltage the weakest?
d. If you have ten 9V batteries together in series and measure the voltage, what would it read?
3) What is the formal definition of a circuit?
a. What are some requirements to have a circuit? (two key requirements)
4) What is the definition of current?
a. How does it relate to voltage?
b. Which way will current flow through a DC circuit?
c. If I have a current of 4.3 amps, how much charge is flowing every second?
d. How long will it take for a current of 20 amps to pass a total of 3,000 C of charge?
e. If one battery creates a circuit with a current of 10 amps, what would be the current with 5 batteries connected
in series?
f.
What happens to the current as you increase the voltage?
g. What happens to the current as you increase the resistance?
h. A circuit with a single lightbulb has a current of 8 amps measured before the lightbulb. What would be the
current after the lightbulb?
5) What is the definition of resistance?
a. What are some of the things that will determine how much resistance a piece of a circuit has
b. Which will have more resistance: a long wire or short wire, a thick wire or a thin wire, a wire of copper or a
wire of carbon?
6) What is Ohm’s Law?
a. How much current is there in a circuit with a resistance of 5 ohms and a voltage of 120V going through the
circuit.
b. How much voltage is needed to have a current of 10 amps through a circuit with a resistance of 5 ohms.
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Honors Physics: Unit 6 – Electricity and Magnetism
c. A speaker needs a voltage of 100V to push a current of 4.2A through its coils. What is the resistance of the
speaker?
d. What would happen to current if…….
i. Voltage doubles
ii. Resistance triples
7) What are the key differences between a series and parallel circuit
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
Which type will keep the same current through every resistor?
Which type will keep the same voltage through every resistor?
Which type will have the total current spread to each resistor (based off Ohm’s Law)
Which type will have the total voltage spread to each resistor (based off Ohm’s Law)
What happens to the overall resistance when you add resistors in series? In parallel?
8) How do you determine the equivalent resistance in……..
a. Series Circuits?
b. Parallel Circuits?
c. How to you determine the total current in the circuit?
d. What would be the equivalent resistance for the circuit:
9) Fill out the chart for the two different circuits shown below:
Equivalent Resistance:
Equivalent Resistance:
Total Currrent of Circuit:
Total Currrent of Circuit:
Resistor
Current
[Resistance] Through
Resistor
R1 [____Ω]
R2 [____Ω]
R3 [____Ω]
Voltage
Through
Resistor
Resistor
Current
[Resistance] Through
Resistor
R1 [____Ω]
Voltage
Through
Resistor
R2 [____Ω]
R3 [____Ω]
R4 [____Ω]
R5 [____Ω]
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Honors Physics: Unit 6 – Electricity and Magnetism
10) What happens when two like poles of a magnet are near? What happens when two opposite poles of a magnet are
near?
11) Will a magnet always have two poles? Even if it is broken?
12) What is the core thing that creates a magnetic field?
13) How do you draw magnetic field lines? From _______ to _________
a. How will a compass act in a magnetic field?
b. Where is the magnetic field the strongest?
14) What is a magnetic domain?
a. How can you use the magnetic domains to create a magnet?
15) What shape is the magnetic field around a conducting wire?
a. How do you use the Right Hand Rule to determine the direction of the magnetic field?
b. When a magnetic field is bent into a loop, what does the magnetic field look similar to?
16) What is an electromagnet?
a. How does it work?
b. How can you determine which side of the coil is the North pole and which is the South pole?
c. Why will adding a conductor “core” to an electromagnet make it more effective?
17) What happens to a moving charge when it hits a magnetic field?
a. When are times where it will not be deflected (feel a force)
18) How does a motor work?
a. Why is it important to change the direction of the current periodically?
b. What would happen if you did not change the direction of the current?
19) What is electromagnetic induction?
a. Will I have electromagnetic induction if I place a magnet in a coil of wire?
i. If I move the coil of wire around a magnet?
ii. If I move a magnet around a coil of wire?
b. What are ways to increase the amount of voltage that is created?
20) What is a generator and how does it work?
a. What are the similarities and differences between a generator and a motor?
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Honors Physics: Unit 6 – Electricity and Magnetism
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