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Engineering - ENGR 211

Circuits I

• Introduce the fundamental theories of electrical engineering to students in all engineering disciplines.
• Describe how circuit theory and electromagnetic theory provide a basis for the electrical engineering branches including power, machinery, control, electronics, computer engineering and communications.
• Express various physical quantities in the International System of Units (SI) using the correct symbols and prefix designations.
• Describe the flow of electric charge or electric current in terms of electron flow and establish the equality of coulombs per second and amperes.
• Describe the difference between direct current and alternating current.
• Define voltage or potential difference as the energy needed to move a unit of charge from one point to another and establish the equality of volts, joules per coulomb, and Newton-meters per coulomb.
• Describe power as the time rate of change of expending energy and introduce the law of conservation of energy.
• Define passive and active elements in terms of the ability to generate or produce energy.
• Establish the symbolism for voltage or current controlled current or voltage sources.
• Calculate electricity costs based on energy use data and a typical residential rate schedule.
• Calculate ohmic resistance and discuss the properties of resistors in terms of area, length, and resistivity.
• Use Ohm’s Law to relate current flow to voltage across a resistor.
• Discuss the range of possible resistances including the lower and upper limits (short circuit and open circuit).
• Calculate conductance in mhos or Siemens and use conductance in power and energy calculations.
• Introduce the concepts of network topology including the formal definitions of branches and nodes and the dependence or independence of loops.
• Discuss the concepts of parallel and series connection and how currents and voltages divide according to the connection logic.
• Calculate the current in one branch entering a node using Kirchoff’s Current Law.
• Calculate the voltage in one branch of a loop using Kirchoff’s Voltage Law.
• Discuss circuits that can be analyzed using current and voltage division.
• Calculate the equivalent resistance of circuits comprised of parallel and series resistors.
• Discuss the theoretical and practical characteristics of voltmeters and ammeters.
• Use nodal analysis to generate enough simultaneous equations to be able to solve for unknown currents and voltages in a multi-node circuit.
• Use mesh analysis to generate enough simultaneous to be able to solve for unknown currents and voltages in a multi-loop circuit.
• Develop the conductance matrix or the resistance matrix by inspection using a generalized procedure.
• Use the principle of linearity to determine voltages and currents in a circuit when inputs are changed by a constant.
• Calculate the total current in an element in a circuit with multiple sources by using the principle of superposition.
• Use the Source Transformation technique to decrease the time and complexity of circuit solutions.
• Apply Thevenin’s Theorem to replace a complex network with a simple network at two terminals.
• Apply Norton’s Theorem to replace a complex network with a simple network at two terminals.
• Calculate the voltage gain for various ideal operational amplifier circuits.
• Replace a non-ideal operational amplifier with an equivalent circuit and perform circuit calculations.
• Discuss inductors and capacitors as energy storage elements and identify circuit variables that can not change abruptly.
• Describe the behavior of inductors and capacitors when constant voltage or current is applied.
• Calculate the energy stored in inductors and capacitors when initial conditions are known.
• Express the rate of decay in inductors and capacitors in terms of time constants.
• Calculate the equivalent impedance of a network composed of inductors and capacitors.
• Calculate the current flow in a source free RL circuit.
• Calculate the voltage in a source free RC circuit.
• Use singularity functions (unit step, unit impulse, unit ramp) to mathematically express various voltage versus time relationships.
• Calculate the complete response of a circuit by adding the natural response to the forced response.
• Determine the source free response of an RLC circuit.
• Calculate initial and final values of variables in second order circuits.
• Describe critical damping, overdamping, and underdamping for RLC circuits.
• Use the power triangle concept to correct power factor.

Prepared by: Fred Denny, PhD