Year 13
Side B3: Alternating Currents
Cover alternating current equations and rectification as a short focused topic.
Part of Year 13 CIE Physics 9702.
Topic Overview
What students will cover
This topic is brief but important for later induction work. Keep the content concise so you can revise the equations and circuit applications quickly.
You begin with sinusoidal alternating current and voltage equations, including peak, period, frequency, mean power, and r.m.s. values. The rectification lesson then connects diode circuits to half-wave and full-wave output graphs before practice brings the equations, graphs, and smoothing ideas together.
Revision
Topic revision route
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Recall vocabulary
alternating current
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period
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frequency
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peak value
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r.m.s. value
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mean power
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half-wave rectification
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full-wave rectification
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bridge rectifier
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smoothing
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r.m.s.
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rectification
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smoothing capacitor
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practice
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Resource bank
- Lesson resources
- 3
- Topic resources
- 0
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Syllabus CIE 9702 coverage in this topic
8 points across 3 lessons
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CIE 9702 coverage in this topic
8 points across 3 lessons
21.1.1
understand and use the terms period, frequency and peak value as applied to an alternating current or voltage
21.1.2
use equations of the form x = x0 sin ωt representing a sinusoidally alternating current or voltage
21.1.3
recall and use the fact that the mean power in a resistive load is half the maximum power for a sinusoidal alternating current
21.1.4
distinguish between root-mean-square (r.m.s.) and peak values and recall and use I r.m.s. = I0 / 2 and Vr.m.s. = V0 / 2 for a sinusoidal alternating current
21.2.1
distinguish graphically between half-wave and full-wave rectification
21.2.2
explain the use of a single diode for the half-wave rectification of an alternating current
21.2.3
explain the use of four diodes (bridge rectifier) for the full-wave rectification of an alternating current
21.2.4
analyse the effect of a single capacitor in smoothing, including the effect of the values of capacitance and the load resistance
Lessons
Lesson sequence
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