Graphing & Variables
This type of variable is usually placed on the x-axis and is the one you control in an experiment.
Independent Variable
TThis type of circuit has only one path for current to flow.
Series
This type of circuit has multiple branches that share a node, and in an ideal version, all branches share the same voltage.
Parallel
In standard AC wiring, these are the colors for hot, neutral, and ground.
Hot = black
Neutral = white
Ground = green
According to basic electrostatics, this is how like charges and unlike charges behave toward each other.
Like charges repel, unlike charges attract
When making a graph, this choice determines how far apart your numbers are on each axis and should be chosen to fill most of the page.
Scale
In a series circuit, this is how you calculate total resistance.
RT=R1+R2+…
When you add more parallel branches to a circuit, this happens to the total resistance.
It decreases and is always smaller than the smallest resistor branch
This prong on a hospital-grade plug is slightly longer and connects first and disconnects last.
Ground pin
This region around a charge or charged object exerts forces on other charges, even without contact.
Electric field
These three items should always be present on a proper graph: what the graph is about, labels on axes, and the units.
Title, labeled axis, and units
In a series circuit, this quantity is the same at every point in the circuit.
Current
This is the formula for total resistance in a parallel circuit with multiple resistors.
RT= 1/R1 + 1/R2 + 1/R3 +...
This one-time protection device melts when current exceeds a safe level, while this resettable device trips but can be switched back on.
Fuse and circuit breaker
This is why your hair stands up when you touch the dome of a Van de Graaff generator.
Each hair becomes similarly charged and the like charges repel each other
Instead of connecting data points with jagged lines, you should draw this smooth representation of the trend.
Best fit line
This rule or formula lets you find the voltage across a single resistor in a series string using the total voltage and total resistance.
Vx=VT(RT/Rx)
This law says that the total current entering a node equals the sum of the currents leaving it.
Kirchoff's Current Law
This safety device monitors the difference between hot and neutral currents and quickly shuts off if it detects current leaking (for example, in a wet environment).
Ground fault current interrupter (GFCI/GFI)
Passing current through a coil of wire wrapped around an iron core produces this device, whose strength increases with more turns or more current.
Electromagnet
On a graph, putting a small loop or circle around each plotted point is a way of visually representing this concept.
Uncertainty or possible error
Ohm's Law
V=IR
To solve these circuits, you repeatedly combine obvious series and parallel groups into equivalents, find total current, and then “expand” everything back out.
Combo circuits
This type of shock involves tiny currents delivered directly to the heart, often via catheters or pacing wires, and can cause lethal arrhythmias.
Microshock
This rotating device uses current in a magnetic field to produce torque and mechanical motion, whereas its cousin does the reverse, producing voltage from motion in a magnetic field.
Motor and generator