AC Circuit Analysis: The Fundamentals

Electricity is simply the movement of electrons through a conductor, such as a wire. These electrons move in two different ways: either in an alternating current (AC) or in a direct current (DC). This free online electrical course will focus on alternating currents and will teach you the basic knowledge you will need to work with AC circuits. The course begins by introducing you to alternating currents and the differences between AC and DC. Thereafter, you will be taught the working principle of a generator and the concept of mutual inductance. Have you ever wondered how transformers work or the purpose they serve? The course content explores the working principle of a transformer and helps understand how it functions. You will learn about AC sinusoidal waveforms and the methods of expressing or calculating the magnitude of a waveform as base knowledge before moving on to dealing with the importance and significance of root mean square (RMS) value in the analysis of an AC circuit and related value and voltage calculations.

Understanding phasors is vital in the analysis of AC circuits because they form the fundamentals of sinusoidal waveforms in an AC circuit. Phasors are vectors that analytically represent sinusoidal waveforms and this certificate in electrical engineering explores their characteristics such as magnitude, frequency, and relative phase angle and how they can be used in the analysis of AC circuits. Phasors can be described using two basic types of notations which are polar notation and rectangular notation and the content will teach you basic phasor arithmetic such as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division of phasors in both rectangular and polar notations. As part of the phasor theme, you will also learn notation conversion from polar to rectangular and vice versa.

Basic electricity rules indicate that an AC circuit can contain a number of series or parallel connections and this free electrical engineering online course covers resistor, inductor and capacitor (RLC) circuits connected in both parallel and series connections in great detail along with phase shift and how to calculate the reactance of capacitors, inductors and the impedance of an AC circuit. There are many theories and laws governing AC circuits that you need to understand in order to apply your knowledge and some of these include Kirchhoff’s voltage law, Kirchhoff’s current law and Ohm’s law. Some other key topics of discussion in the final section of the course details how to describe power flow in an AC circuit, how to calculate the average power of a circuit and its significance in the power engineering industry. Are you struggling with the application of electrical theory and basic electrical engineering? Enrolling in this course will point you in the right direction and help you to not only appreciate the many uses of AC circuits, but will set you up to apply your technical knowledge in your career in electrical engineering.