Electricians technical math is a skill that must be mastered to ensure that the installation can be done efficiently, without potential issues that can cause you and your family serious harm.
Are you interested in becoming an electrician? Well, if that is the case, you might want to make sure you are up on your math skills. Ohm’s law states that the current through a conductor between two points is directly proportional to the voltage across the two points. The formulas related to Ohm’s law are the foundations of electrical supplies like electrical circuits.
Understanding Electricians Technical Math
The first step you will want to take is to review certain fundamentals of math. Understanding the following will be useful: whole numbers, decimals, fractions, percentages, multipliers, percent increase, reciprocals, squaring a number, parenthesis, square root, volume, kilo and rounding off.
It’s also a good idea to review your basic knowledge of simple electrical supplies like an electric circuit. This consists of a load, a power source, and conductors. A switch will activate and deactivate the circuit.
Once you have mastered this basic knowledge, it’s time to take it to the next level, which is to apply this to what you need to know when doing electrical work. It’s important to understand the theory of direct proportion, which is to say that changing one factor will result in the change of another factor, so if the voltage increases by 25%, the current will increase by 25%. Inverse proportion is the opposite of this. In inverse proportion, decreasing one factor by 25% will result in an equal increase in the other factor.
Ohm’s law states E=IxR or Voltage=Current x Resistance. Two values here must be known to solve for the third. Similarly, a PIE formula circle determines the relationship between Power, Current and Voltage in which P=IxE (E being voltage and I being current).
A formula wheel combines Ohm’s law and the formula circle. The formulas in the formula wheel can be used for direct or alternating current circuits with unity power factor. In the formula wheel, you can determine the value of voltage, current, resistance or power based on the known amounts.
Power used in electrical supplies like fluorescent lights, motors or stove elements is considered useful work. The power used to make the electricity such as heating the conductors is considered wasted work. An electrician should be aware of this principal and be able to figure out the cost of power consumed in watts. This is based on a mathematical formula, P=I2xR.
An electrician should also understand that the voltage applied to a resistor can dramatically affect the power it consumes. Power is determined by the square of the voltage so if the voltage is doubled, power will increase by four times. Similarly, if the voltage is reduced by 50%, the power will go down by 25%.
Reviewing the electricians technical math in a bit more depth will give you a good working knowledge to solve a wide variety of electrical problems. However, there is still much more to learn. Those wishing to find out more about the mathematics involved in electrical work should consider looking online for study guides where you can learn more advanced techniques which will increase your skill and knowledge. Good luck in your pursuit of a mathematical education as an electrician.