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Showing posts from November, 2014

Drift Speed of Electrons In a wire

Two wires X and Y have the same resistivity, but their cross sectional areas in the ratio 2:3 and lengths in the ratio 1:2 They are first connected in series and then in parallel to a dc source Find out ratio of drift speeds of electrons in two wires for the two cases. case i) Series In  series combination current I through each resistor will be the same Current I= neAV d n=number of electrons per unit volume e=Charge of an electron A=Area of cross section of wire V d = Drift speed V d = I /  (neA) V d1 = I  /  (neA 1 )      --------------(1) V d2 = I  /  (neA 2 )      --------------(2) Note that 'ne' is same for both the wires since the resistivity same means same material From 1) and 2) V d1 /   V d2  =  A 2  / A 1 ie   Ratio of drift speed is 3:2  case ii) Parallel In  Parallel combination potential  ' v 'through each resistor will be the same ...