| A | B |
|---|
| electric charge | property that causes subatomic particles such as protons and electrons to attract or repel each other |
| electric force | force of attraction or repulsion between electrically charged objects |
| electric field | effect an electric charge has on another charge in the space around it |
| static electricity | study of the behavior of electric charges |
| law of conservation of charge | the total charge in an isolated system is constant |
| electric current | continuous flow of electric charge |
| alternating current | a flow of electric charge that regularly reverse direction |
| direct current | charge that flows in only one direction |
| electrical conductor | a material through which charge can flow easily |
| electrical insulator | a material through which charge cannot flow easily |
| resistance | opposition to the flow of charges in a material |
| superconductor | a material that has almost zero resistance when it is cooled to low temperatures |
| potential difference | the difference in electrical potential energy between two places in an electric field |
| voltage | another name for potential difference |
| battery | a device that converts chemical energy to electrical energy |
| ohm's law | the voltage in a circuit equals the product of the current and the resistance |
| series circuit | charge has only one path through which it can flow |
| parallel circuit | an electric circuit with two or more paths through which charges can flow |
| electric power | rate at which electrical energy is converted to another form of energy |
| circuit breaker | a switch that opens when current in a circuit is too high |
| grounding | the transfer of excess charge through a conductor to the Earth |
| electronics | the science of using electric current to process or transmit information |
| digital signal | encodes information as a string of 1's and 0's |
| analog signal | a smoothly varying signal produced by continuously changing the voltage or current in a circuit |
| diode | a solid state component that combines an n-type and p-type semiconductor |
| transistor | a solid state component with three layers of semiconductors |
| integrated circuit | a thin slice of silicon that contains many solid state components |
| computer | a programmable device that can store and process information |
| fuse | prevents current overload in a circuit |
| induction | a transfer of charge without contact between materials |
| electronic signal | information sent as patterns in the controlled flow of electrons through a circuit |
| electric circuit | a complete path through which charge can flow |
| semiconductor | a crystalline solid that conducts electricity only under certain conditions |
