Section

Electrical engineering

Key topics from the three-year curriculum of electrical and electronic technical schools, selected for their conceptual importance and, as experience shows, because they are not always easy to grasp. This is precisely where the interactive content comes in.

Single-phase alternating current, sinusoidal steady state

  • Alternating current 1: sinusoidal electrical quantitiesinteractive lesson

    How sinusoidal EMFs are generated and how they are represented by rotating vectors and phasors. Amplitude, frequency, angular frequency, phase, average and RMS values; then the symbolic method, which uses complex numbers to turn operations on sinusoids into algebra.

  • Alternating current 2: series RLC circuits, reactance, impedance, voltage resonanceinteractive lesson · in ItalianCorrente alternata 2: circuiti RLC serie, reattanza, impedenza, risonanza di tensione

    Inductive and capacitive reactance and impedance, through the analysis of series RLC circuits. Series (voltage) resonance is explained with interactive graphs.

  • Alternating current 3: parallel RLC circuits, admittance, current resonanceinteractive lesson · in ItalianCorrente alternata 3: circuiti RLC parallelo, ammettenza, risonanza di corrente

    Resistor, inductor and capacitor in parallel: admittance, conductance and susceptance, energy exchange in each configuration, current resonance and a first look at power factor correction. With activities and exercises.

  • Electric power in sinusoidal AC circuitsinteractive lesson

    Instantaneous, active, reactive and apparent power, the power factor and the power triangle.

  • Power factor correction in electrical installationsinteractive lesson

    Why an installation needs power factor correction and how the correction capacitors are sized.

  • Self-inductance in sinusoidal steady stateinteractive lesson

    How an ideal inductor, a solenoid with no resistance and therefore no losses, behaves when it carries a sinusoidal current. The direction of the self-induced EMFs and the reactive power.

These lessons lay the groundwork for single-phase AC circuits: from generating sinusoidal EMFs to the behavior of the basic components, up to the symbolic method and the mathematics it needs.

Three-phase systems

  • Symmetrical and balanced three-phase systemsinteractive lesson

    Generation of three-phase voltages, voltages and currents in star and delta connections, power in three-phase systems.

  • Rotating magnetic fieldsinteractive lesson · in ItalianCampi magnetici rotanti

    How three phase-shifted alternating currents produce a magnetic field that rotates. The lesson was featured in The Physics Teacher (2009) and is indexed in the Smithsonian/NASA Astrophysics Data System.

Solved Italian state exams (Esame di Stato)