Page 12 - Schaum's Outline of Theory and Problems of Electric Circuits

Introduction

1.1 ELECTRICAL QUANTITIES AND SI UNITS
The International System of Units (SI) will be used throughout this book. Four basic quantities
and their SI units are listed in Table 1-1. The other three basic quantities and corresponding SI units,
not shown in the table, are temperature in degrees kelvin (K), amount of substance in moles (mol), and
luminous intensity in candelas (cd).
All other units may be derived from the seven basic units. The electrical quantities and their symbols
commonly used in electrical circuit analysis are listed in Table 1-2.
Two supplementary quantities are plane angle (also called phase angle in electric circuit analysis)
and solid angle. Their corresponding SI units are the radian (rad) and steradian (sr).
Degrees are almost universally used for the phase angles in sinusoidal functions, for instance,
sinð!t þ 308Þ. Since !t is in radians, this is a case of mixed units.
The decimal multiples or submultiples of SI units should be used whenever possible. The symbols
given in Table 1-3 are prefixed to the unit symbols of Tables 1-1 and 1-2. For example, mV is used for
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millivolt, 10 3 V, and MW for megawatt, 10 W.

1.2 FORCE, WORK, AND POWER
The derived units follow the mathematical expressions which relate the quantities. From ‘‘force
equals mass times acceleration,’’ the newton (N) is defined as the unbalanced force that imparts an
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acceleration of 1 meter per second squared to a 1-kilogram mass. Thus, 1 N ¼ 1kg m=s .
Work results when a force acts over a distance. A joule of work is equivalent to a newton-meter:
1J ¼ 1N m. Work and energy have the same units.
Power is the rate at which work is done or the rate at which energy is changed from one form to
another. The unit of power, the watt (W), is one joule per second (J/s).

Table 1-1

Quantity Symbol SI Unit Abbreviation
length L; l meter m
mass M; m kilogram kg
time T; t second s
current I; i ampere A

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