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E5D09

ELECTRICAL PRINCIPLES · RF effects in components and circuits: skin effect; real and reactive power; electrical length of conductors

E5D09E5D →

What happens to reactive power in ideal inductors and capacitors?

  1. AIt is dissipated as heat in the circuit
  2. BEnergy is stored in magnetic or electric fields, but power is not dissipated
  3. CIt is canceled by Coulomb forces in the capacitor and inductor
  4. DIt is dissipated in the formation of inductive and capacitive fields
Why Ideal inductors and capacitors have no resistance, so they cannot convert electrical energy into heat. Instead they take energy from the source during part of the AC cycle and store it in a magnetic field (inductor) or an electric field (capacitor), then return that same energy to the source during the next part of the cycle. That back-and-forth flow is called reactive power, measured in VAR, and its net average over a cycle is zero. Only real power, dissipated in resistance, produces heat.
Watch out The choices describing dissipation as heat or dissipation in forming the fields confuse reactive power with real power; only resistance dissipates energy, and building a field stores energy rather than consuming it.
Reactance borrows, resistance burns. Ideal L and C give the energy back.
HamSandwich explanation, first draft. The question and answers are the NCVEC text.
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The rest of E5D

  1. E5D01 What is the result of conductor skin effect?
  2. E5D02 Why is it important to keep lead lengths short for components used in circuits for VHF and above?
  3. E5D03 What is the phase relationship between current and voltage for reactive power?
  4. E5D04 Why are short connections used at microwave frequencies?
  5. E5D05 What parasitic characteristic causes electrolytic capacitors to be unsuitable for use at RF?
  6. E5D06 What parasitic characteristic creates an inductor's self-resonance?
  7. E5D07 What combines to create the self-resonance of a component?
  8. E5D08 What is the primary cause of loss in film capacitors at RF?
  9. E5D09 What happens to reactive power in ideal inductors and capacitors?
  10. E5D10 As a conductor's diameter increases, what is the effect on its electrical length?
  11. E5D11 How much real power is consumed in a circuit consisting of a 100-ohm resistor in series with a 100-ohm induct…
  12. E5D12 What is reactive power?
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