Sixth Edition, last update July 25, 2007
2
Lessons In Electric Circuits, Volume II – AC
By Tony R. Kuphaldt
Sixth Edition, last update July 25, 2007
i
c©2000-2009, Tony R. Kuphaldt
This book is published under the terms and conditions of the Design Science License. These
terms and conditions allow for free copying, distribution, and/or modification of this document
by the general public. The full Design Science License text is included in the last chapter.
As an open and collaboratively developed text, this book is distributed in the hope that
it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the Design Science
License for more details.
Available in its entirety as part of the Open Book Project collection at:
www.ibiblio.org/obp/electricCircuits
PRINTING HISTORY
• First Edition: Printed in June of 2000. Plain-ASCII illustrations for universal computer
readability.
• Second Edition: Printed in September of 2000. Illustrations reworked in standard graphic
(eps and jpeg) format. Source files translated to Texinfo format for easy online and printed
publication.
• Third Edition: Equations and tables reworked as graphic images rather than plain-ASCII
text.
• Fourth Edition: Printed in November 2001. Source files translated to SubML format.
SubML is a simple markup language designed to easily convert to other markups like
LATEX, HTML, or DocBook using nothing but search-and-replace substitutions.
• Fifth Edition: Printed in November 2002. New sections added, and error corrections
made, since the fourth edition.
• Sixth Edition: Printed in June 2006. Added CH 13, sections added, and error corrections
made, figure numbering and captions added, since the fifth edition.
ii
Contents
1 BASIC AC THEORY
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1.1 What is alternating current (AC)? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1
1.2 AC waveforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6
1.3 Measurements of AC magnitude . . . . . . . .