Current, resistance, and circuits
What students will learn
Use circuit connections, charge conservation, and energy conservation to explain DC circuits and RC endpoints.
Before this topic
- Charge and potential difference
- Ohm’s-law graph slopes
- Capacitance and stored energy
Read and connect
Read: Electric Current →
Distinguish conventional current from carrier drift and use current-time area and charge-time slope.
Read: Simple Circuits →
Translate physical connections into schematics, nodes, branches, and actual loops.
Read: Resistance, Resistivity, and Ohm’s Law →
Separate object resistance from material resistivity and test a controlled-temperature ohmic model.
Read: Electric Power →
Connect current and voltage with power under a specified fixed-current or fixed-voltage constraint.
Read: Compound Direct Current (DC) Circuits →
Identify genuine series and parallel groups and place meters where their quantities are measured.
Read: Kirchhoff’s Junction Rule →
Track signed branch currents with a steady-junction charge account.
Read: Kirchhoff’s Loop Rule →
Write independent signed voltage ledgers around physical loops and check potential graphs.
Supporting reading: Capacitors →
Review capacitor charge, voltage, and energy before combining capacitors and interpreting charging.
Before this connection: Potential difference and stored energy.
Read: Resistor-Capacitor (RC) Circuits →
Solve initial and long-time RC states, compare time constants, and explain qualitative charging and discharge curves.
Check understanding
Use the complete prompt to make student reasoning visible, then consult the separate worked reasoning and criteria. A reading completion tick records reading history.
Check physical circuit paths →
Correct an invalid loop, draw branch currents, solve independent conservation equations, and construct a potential walk.
Explain an RC circuit over time →
Calculate initial and final quantities and time constant, then sketch charging and discharge curves and explain energy transfer.
Transient curves are qualitative; this task does not require exponential or logarithmic transient formulas.
Standards and earlier reading lists
These topic placements organize reading. Edition-qualified Standards mappings and the existing complete unit task sets retain their reviewed scope.