Circuit Components
An electric circuit is a closed path that electrons can flow through. All electric circuits have four basic components
- EMF source. Electricity requires EMF. The source can be a battery, a photovoltaic panel, or the electric outlet in your room. If it's the latter, the real source may be a hydroelectric generating station, for example.
- Load. The load refers to the device that consumes the energy (converts it to another form). Examples are lights (converts electricity to heat and light) and electric motors (converts electricity to heat and rotary motion).
- Conductors. Conductors are the pathway that electrons follow through the circuit. Examples are wires and copper traces on circuit boards.
- Control. Control is the mechanism that is used to start, stop, and regulate the electric current. Examples are switches and variable resistors (i.e., volume controls)
Most of the time, it is not convenient to make pictorial drawings of electric circuits. Instead, a type of drawing called a schematic is used. From previous activities, you should recall that we use letters as symbols to represent voltage, current, resistance and power. For schematic drawings we use a different set of symbols.
Types of Switches
The information above was taken from: https://www.cdli.ca/courses/ep/predesign/t03/02knowledge-skills/act-10a.htm
