15 votes
Accepted

How do charge carriers "know" how much voltage to use for work in a specific component?

This is communicated to the current through surface charges on the surface of conductors and at the interface between conductors of different conductivities. So, for example, consider a circuit ...
Dale's user avatar
  • 94.5k
10 votes

How do charge carriers "know" how much voltage to use for work in a specific component?

Once you accept circuit theory, then things must work as the theory describe. It is still a valid question to ask why is circuit theory true and why circuit theory is apparently non local. Given there ...
Bohan Xu's user avatar
  • 504
8 votes

How do charge carriers "know" how much voltage to use for work in a specific component?

Anthropomorphizing the physics in this case has made your problem far weirder than necessary. The fact that you have different resistances means there is different current flow for a given voltage. It ...
Matt Hanson's user avatar
  • 1,990
2 votes
Accepted

If two inductors with different inductances are connected in parallel to a dc circuit, will they have the same current in them at steady state?

The current-voltage relation of an ideal inductor is $v=L\ di/dt$, or equivalently, $$i(t) = i(0)+\frac{1}{L}\int\limits_0^tv(\tau)d\tau.$$ Now consider the two ideal inductors in parallel, with ...
Puk's user avatar
  • 11.8k
2 votes

Calculation of the electrical resistance of an anisotropic conductor with spacially varying current density

It's actually simpler to think in terms of conductance. In general, you need to solve for the electric potential using the conservation of current: $$ \nabla\cdot(\sigma\nabla V) = 0 $$ with $\sigma = ...
LPZ's user avatar
  • 9,535
2 votes

Voltage across a capacitor in a circuit

"Am I supposed to find the voltage across each resistor first?" Yes, that's a good first step. [The quick way is to treat the left and right resistor combinations as potential dividers.] ...
Philip Wood's user avatar
  • 34.8k
2 votes
Accepted

How do non-ideal inductors behave in a circuit?

The 'violation' of Kirchhoff's rules is presumably the summation of the $V_\mathrm{coil}$ $300$V AC drop on the lossy inductor with the $V_{R}$ $200$V AC drop on the resistor to produce a $400$V ...
Whit3rd's user avatar
  • 9,518
2 votes

Understanding surface charges on a resistor and what a voltmeter is measuring

the electric field must be same everywhere in the circuit including the resistor This is incorrect. The electric field is not the same everywhere in the circuit. proportionality between the electric ...
Dale's user avatar
  • 94.5k
1 vote

Reactance of an Inductor

Let $V=V_0\sin(\omega t)$. For an inductor $V = \displaystyle L\frac{dI}{dt} \Rightarrow \int V\,dt=V_0\int \sin(\omega t)\,dt= L\int dI $ $LI = -\dfrac{V_0}{\omega}\cos(\omega t) + \rm constant$ and ...
Farcher's user avatar
  • 93.6k
1 vote
Accepted

Reactance of an Inductor

Your calculation is correct so far. But instead of $V(t)=V_0\sin(\omega t)$ start with $V(t)=V_0e^{j\omega t}$. And then repeat your calculation to find $I(t)$.
Thomas Fritsch's user avatar
1 vote

How do I calculate the electrical resistance for a sodium chloride solution?

A non-ohmic conductor is one where there resistance (defined by $R=V/I$) is not constant for different voltages or currents. If there is a chance the solution is non-ohmic, you need to use a fixed ...
David Bailey's user avatar
  • 8,425
1 vote

Diode confusion

Yes diodes are drawn considering the conventional current. The cathode is the negative side (the side that was heated in 19th century cathode ray tubes to help the process of releasing electrons). The ...
Jan Bos's user avatar
  • 821
1 vote

What is the angular frequency $\omega$ in which the maximum current occur?

So, by analogy the $I_0$ should exhibit the same behaviour as the amplitude in the force damped oscillation $\dots$ You are comparing two different things so let me explain. For a mechanical system ...
Farcher's user avatar
  • 93.6k

Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible