What Is An Electrical Source?

You probably suspect an electrical source has to be something that gives you a voltage or a current, and you would be correct.

Why Are Sources Important?

Electrical sources, in practice, include things like: batteries, the ever-present wall plug, power supplies (like those little things you use with your calculator and other things) and many other kinds of electrical devices that deliver electrical energy.

What Is An Ideal Voltage Source?

A voltage source that can maintain a constant voltage - no matter what you do to it, like drawing a lot of current, or putting it in a situation where current flows through it - is an ideal voltage source.

Ideal Voltage Source

An ideal voltage source is a voltage source that maintains the same voltage across the source's terminals no matter what current is drawn from the terminals of the source or what current flows into the terminals.

 The voltage across the terminals is denoted as Vt. The load current flowing from the source to a load (presumably a load is attached when the source is in a circuit) is denoted as IL. With those definitions, here is the source symbol. It's just a circle with polarity indicated.

Vt = constant, no matter what the load current is.

 Direct Voltage Source: Alternating Voltage Source:

Ideal Voltage Source:

Direct Voltage Source:

A device which produces a continuous direct voltage output is called a Direct Voltage Source. For example: Cells , Battery , DC Generator. A direct voltage is the kind of voltage whose polarity remains the same. Direct Voltage causes the current to move only in one direction continuously.

Alternating Voltage Source:

A device which produces a alternating direct voltage output is called a Alternating Voltage Source. For example: AC Generator , DC to AC converter etc. A alternating voltage is the kind of voltage whose polarity is reversed periodically. Alternating Voltage causes the current to move in one direction for a period and then in another direction for another period.

Ideal Voltage Source:

An Ideal Voltage source is a kind of Voltage source whose internal resistance is zero! Such that the supplied voltage does not changes even if the external load resistance is changes.

Current Source:
A current source is a device which provides the regular flow or electrons or current on a circuit. A current source is a type of voltage source which have enough EMF and surplus electrons so as to produce the flow of electrons.
There is a special circuit symbol for an ideal current source. See below.

Symbol and Graph

 IL = constant, no matter what the terminal voltage is. The plot of load current against terminal voltage is similar to the plot for an ideal voltage source, but voltage and current are interchanged. Here is the plot.

Types of current sources:

Direct Current Source: The current source made of a Direct Voltage Source is called Direct Current Source. Alternating Current Source: The current source made of a Alternating Voltage Source is called Alternating Current Source. Ideal Current Source: A current source which provides a constant current without any relation with the voltage supplied to the load is called Ideal Current Source.

Conversion of Voltage Source into Current Source and Vice Versa:

The Internal resistance of the voltage source = Latex formula The Load resistance = Latex formula The Open Voltage across the load resistance = V = Latex formula And the Short Current across the load resistance = I Short = Latex formula Now we need to convert the above Constant voltage current source into a Constant Current Source with Following anatomy:

As we can see in the above constant current source: the Open Voltage = V = Latex formula and also the short current = I Short = Latex formula Thus the Open Voltage and Short Current in both circuits is same , thus both circuits are electrically equivalent.

 Hence , To convert a Constant Voltage Source into a Constant Current Source we need to follow the following steps. Find the Internal resistance of the Constant Voltage source and place it in parallel with the Voltage source to convert it into a Constant Current Source. Find the Current flowing through the Load in a Voltage source with the Load resistance being short (I = V / R_i) and the Current Provided by the converted constant current source is the same I.

 We can also convert a Constant Current Source into a Constant Voltage Source by following Method:

Find the resistance parallel of the Constant current source and place it in series with the current source to convert it into a Constant Voltage Source. Find the Open Voltage of the current source ( V = I * R_i) and the voltage provided by the constant voltage source will be the same V.