AMIE Section B EEE Exam key terms

The relationship stating that current through a conductor equals the voltage across it divided by its resistance, valid for linear resistive elements under constant temperature conditions.

A conservation principle stating that the algebraic sum of all potential differences around any closed loop in a circuit must equal zero at every instant.

A conservation principle stating that the total current entering a circuit node equals the total current leaving it, since charge cannot accumulate at an ideal junction.

The property of a material that opposes the flow of electric current, measured in ohms and determined by resistivity, length, and cross-sectional area.

An intrinsic material property expressing how strongly a material resists current flow, quoted in ohm-metres and independent of the conductor's physical dimensions.

The ratio of real power to apparent power in an alternating-current circuit, equal to the cosine of the phase angle between voltage and current.

The product of root-mean-square voltage and root-mean-square current in an AC circuit, measured in volt-amperes and combining real and reactive components.

The oscillating power exchanged between inductive or capacitive elements and the source, measured in volt-amperes reactive, which performs no net useful work.

An AC supply arrangement using three voltages displaced by 120 electrical degrees, giving constant total power delivery and efficient transmission with balanced loads.

Two standard ways of connecting three-phase windings or loads; star gives a neutral point and lower phase voltage, while delta gives higher phase current capability.

A static electromagnetic device that transfers AC power between two windings at different voltage levels through a shared magnetic core, with no rotating parts.

Power dissipated as heat by circulating currents induced in a magnetic core by changing flux, reduced by laminating the core or using high-resistivity magnetic material.

Energy dissipated per cycle as a magnetic material is repeatedly magnetised, proportional to the area of its B-H loop and to frequency.

An AC machine in which rotating magnetic field currents induced in the rotor produce torque, requiring slip between synchronous speed and rotor speed.

The fractional difference between the synchronous speed of the rotating field and the actual rotor speed of an induction machine, usually expressed as a percentage.

A two-terminal device formed from a p-n junction that conducts readily in one direction and blocks current in the reverse direction up to breakdown.

A heavily doped diode designed to operate safely in reverse breakdown, providing a stable reference voltage for regulation and clamping circuits.

A circuit that converts alternating current into unidirectional current, typically using diodes in half-wave, full-wave, or bridge configurations followed by filtering.

The ratio of the root-mean-square value of the alternating component of a rectifier output to its average direct value, indicating output smoothness.

A three-terminal current-controlled device with emitter, base, and collector regions, used for amplification and switching in active, saturation, and cutoff modes.

A voltage-controlled three-terminal device in which an electric field modulates the conductivity of a channel between source and drain terminals.

An insulated-gate field-effect transistor whose metal-oxide-semiconductor structure gives very high input impedance, widely used in digital and power switching.

Establishing a suitable quiescent operating point for a transistor so that signal swings remain within the active region without clipping or distortion.

A high-gain differential voltage amplifier, usually integrated, whose behaviour is set by external feedback networks to perform arithmetic and filtering functions.

Returning a fraction of the output signal to the input in opposition to the input, improving gain stability, bandwidth, linearity, and impedance characteristics.

The process of varying a parameter of a carrier wave, such as amplitude, frequency, or phase, in accordance with an information-bearing signal.

A band-limited signal must be sampled at more than twice its highest frequency component to allow exact reconstruction without aliasing.

Mapping a continuous range of sample amplitudes onto a finite set of discrete levels, introducing an irreducible error whose magnitude depends on the number of levels.

Combining several independent signals onto a single shared transmission medium by separating them in time, frequency, or code domains.

A conductor pair or waveguide guiding electromagnetic waves, characterised by distributed inductance and capacitance and a finite propagation velocity.

The ratio of voltage to current for a wave travelling along a uniform transmission line, determined by distributed inductance and capacitance and independent of line length.

A defined arrangement for storing and organising data in memory, such as an array, list, tree, or hash table, chosen to suit required operations.

A measure of how an algorithm's running time or memory use grows with input size, commonly expressed in asymptotic big-O notation.

A collection of data organised as tables of rows and columns with defined keys, queried and manipulated using a declarative structured query language.

Organising database tables to reduce redundancy and update anomalies by decomposing them according to dependency rules into successive normal forms.

System software that manages hardware resources, schedules processes, allocates memory, and provides services and interfaces for application programs.

A technique giving programs an address space larger than physical memory by paging data between main memory and secondary storage under hardware control.

A state in which two or more processes each wait indefinitely for a resource held by another, so that none can proceed without external intervention.

The internal intensity of force within a material, expressed as force per unit area and resolved into normal and shear components.

The dimensionless deformation of a material relative to its original dimension, describing how much it stretches, compresses, or distorts under load.

The ratio of normal stress to normal strain within the linear elastic range of a material, indicating its stiffness.

The ratio of a material's or structure's failure strength to the maximum stress expected in service, providing margin against uncertainty and overload.

A sequence of processes returning a working fluid to its initial state, with net work output equal to the enclosed area on a property diagram.

The maximum possible efficiency of a heat engine operating between two fixed temperatures, equal to one minus the ratio of sink to source absolute temperature.

A machine element that supports a rotating shaft, constraining its motion while carrying radial or axial loads with low friction.

The internal moment at a section of a beam produced by transverse loads, governing the normal stress distribution across that section.

The internal transverse force at a section of a beam, equal to the algebraic sum of external loads acting on one side of that section.

A composite construction material in which steel bars carry tensile stresses while the surrounding concrete resists compression, combining both materials' strengths.

A simple field test measuring the consistency and workability of fresh concrete by the settlement of a moulded cone when the mould is removed.

The maximum pressure a soil foundation can sustain without excessive settlement or shear failure of the supporting ground beneath a structure.

The science of determining positions of points on or near the earth's surface and representing them at a chosen scale for design and construction.