Introduction:

The study of electrical circuits is fundamental in electrical engineering education and can be quite valuable in other disciplines as well. The skills acquired not only are use full in such electrical engineering areas as electronics, communications, microwaves, electro-mechanics, and control and power systems but also can be employed in other, seemingly different fields (e.g., acoustics and mechanics).

By an electric circuit or network, we mean a collection of electric components (e.g., voltage and current sources, resistors, indicator's, capacitors, operational amplifiers, transformers, and transistors) that are interconnected in some manner. Our prime interest in this section will be in the process of determining the behavior of a given circuit, referred to as circuit analysis.

We begin our study by discussing some basic electric circuit elements and the laws that describe them. It is assumed that the reader has been introduced to the concepts of electric charge, potential, and current in various science and physic courses in high school and colleges.

Basic Electric Circuit Components:

There are 3 basic circuit components.

1. Resistor
2. Inductor and 
3. Capacitor

1. Resistor: A resistor is an element that dissipates energy as heat when current passes through it.

2. Inductor: An inductor stores energy by the virtue of the current through it.

3. Capacitor: A capacitor stores the energy by the virtue of the voltage existing across it.

Inductor and capacitor stores the energy.