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Electrical impedance or simply impedance is a measure of opposition to a 'sinusoidal' electric current. The concept of electrical impedance generalizes Ohm's law in AC circuit analysis. Unlike electrical resistance, the impedance of an electric circuit can be a complex number. Oliver Heaviside coined the term impedance in July of 1886. In mathematics, the trigonometric functions are functions of an angle, important when studying triangles and modeling periodic phenomena. ...
In electricity, current is the rate of flow of charges, usually through a metal wire or some other electrical conductor. ...
Ohms law, named after its discoverer Georg Ohm [1], states that the potential difference or voltage drop (U or V) between the ends of a conductor and the current (I) flowing through the conductor are proportional at a given temperature: The equation contains the proportionality constant R, which is...
city lights viewed in a motion blurred exposure. ...
Electrical resistance is a measure of the degree to which an electrical component opposes the passage of current. ...
An electrical network or electrical circuit is an interconnection of analog electrical elements such as resistors, inductors, capacitors, diodes, switches and transistors. ...
Wikibooks Algebra has more about this subject: Complex numbers In mathematics, a complex number is an expression of the form a + bi, where a and b are real numbers, and i stands for the square root of negative one (−1), which cannot be represented by any real number. ...
Oliver Heaviside (May 18, 1850 – February 3, 1925) was a self-taught English engineer, mathematician and physicist who adapted complex numbers to the study of electrical circuits, developed techniques for applying Laplace transforms to the solution of differential equations, reformulated Maxwells field equations in terms of electric and magnetic...
AC steady state In general, the solutions for the voltages and currents in a circuit containing resistors, capacitors and inductors (in short, all linear behaving components) are solutions to a linear ordinary differential equation. It can be shown that if the voltage and/or current sources in the circuit are sinusoidal and of constant frequency, the solutions tend to a form referred to as AC steady state. Thus, all of the voltages and currents in the circuit are sinusoidal and have constant peak amplitude, frequency and phase. In mathematics, and particularly in analysis, an ordinary differential equation (or ODE) is an equation that involves the derivatives of an unknown function of one variable. ...
Let v(t) be a sinusoidal function of time with constant peak amplitude Vp, constant frequency f, and constant phase φ.
 Where: v(t) is the voltage function - Vp is the voltage maximum amplitude
where f is the constant frequency, φ is the constant phase, ω is the angular speed (in radians per second), ω = 2πf, j represents the imaginary unit ( ), and  means the real part of the complex number z. Angular frequency is a measure of how fast an object is rotating In physics (specifically mechanics and electrical engineering), angular frequency ω (also called angular speed) is a scalar measure of rotation rate. ...
The radian (symbol: rad) is the SI unit of plane angle. ...
Look up second in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...
In mathematics, the imaginary unit i (sometimes also represented by the Latin j or the Greek iota, but in this article i will be used exclusively) allows the real number system to be extended to the complex number system . ...
In mathematics, the real part of a complex number , is the first element of the ordered pair of real numbers representing , i. ...
Now, let the complex number V be given by:
 V is called the phasor representation of v(t). V is a constant complex number. For a circuit in AC steady state, all of the voltages and currents in the circuit have phasor representations as long as all the sources are of the same frequency. That is, each voltage and current can be represented as a constant complex number. For DC circuit analysis, each voltage and current is represented by a constant real number. Thus, it is reasonable to suppose that the rules developed for DC circuit analysis can be used for AC circuit analysis by using complex numbers instead of real numbers. In physics a Phasor describes the phase of a particle in a simple harmonic motion or a wave motion. ...
A resistive circuit is a circuit containing only resistors, ideal current sources, and ideal voltage sources. ...
In mathematics, the real numbers are intuitively defined as numbers that are in one-to-one correspondence with the points on an infinite line—the number line. ...
Definition of impedance The impedance of a circuit element is defined as the ratio of the phasor voltage across the element to the phasor current through the element:  It should be noted that although Z is the ratio of two phasors, Z is not itself a phasor. That is, Z is not associated with some sinusoidal function of time.
For DC circuits, the resistance is defined by Ohm's law to be the ratio of the DC voltage across the resistor to the DC current through the resistor:
 where the VR and IR above are DC (constant real) values.
Just as Ohm's law is generalized to AC circuits through the use of phasors, other results from DC circuit analysis such as voltage division, current division, Thevenin's theorem, and Norton's theorem generalize to AC circuits. In electronics, a voltage divider or resistor divider is a design technique used to create a voltage (Vout) which is proportional to another voltage (Vin). ...
Circuits Left: Series | Right: Parallel Arrows indicate direction of current flow. ...
Thevenins theorem for electrical networks states that any combination of voltage sources and resistors with two terminals is electrically equivalent to a single voltage source V and a single series resistor R. For single frequency AC systems the theorem can also be applied to general impedances, not just resistors. ...
Nortons theorem for electrical networks states that any collection of voltage sources and resistors with two terminals is electrically equivalent to an ideal current source I in parallel with a single resistor R. The theorem can also be applied to general impedances, not just resistors. ...
In problems of electromagnetic wave propagation in a homogeneous medium, the impedance of the medium is defined as: Electromagnetic radiation is a propagating wave in space with electric and magnetic components. ...
 where μ and ε are the permeability and permittivity of the medium, respectively. In electromagnetism, permeability is the degree of magnetisation of a material that responds linearly to an applied magnetic field. ...
Permittivity is an intensive physical quantity that describes how an electric field affects and is affected by a medium. ...
Impedance of different devices
Resistor For a resistor, we have the relation:  That is, the ratio of the instantaneous voltage and current associated with a resistor is the value of the DC resistance denoted by R. Since R is constant and real, it follows that if v(t) is sinusoidal, i(t) is also sinusoidal with the same frequency and phase. Thus, we have that the impedance of a resistor is equal to R:  
Capacitor For a capacitor, we have the relation  Now, Let - vC(t) = Vpsin(ωt).
It follows that  Using phasor notation and the result above, write our first equation as:  It follows that the impedance of a capacitor is 
Inductor For the inductor, we have:  By the same reasoning used in the capacitor example above, it follows that the impedance on an inductor is: 
Reactance See main article: Reactance In the analysis of an alternating-current electrical circuit (for example a RLC series circuit), reactance is the imaginary part of impedance, and is caused by the presence of inductors or capacitors in the circuit. ...
The term reactance refers to the imaginary part of the impedance. Some examples:
A resistor's impedance is R (its resistance) and its reactance is 0.
A capacitor's impedance is j (-1/ωC) and its reactance is -1/ωC.
An inductor's impedance is j ω L and its reactance is ω L.
It is important to note that the impedance of a capacitor or an inductor is a function of the frequency f and is an imaginary quantity - however is certainly a real physical phenomenon relating the shift in phases between the voltage and current phasors due to the existence of the capacitor or inductor. Earlier it was shown that the impedance of a resistor is constant and real, in other words a resistor does not cause a phase shift between voltage and current as do capacitors and inductors.
When resistors, capacitors, and inductors are combined in an AC circuit, the impedances of the individual components can be combined in the same way that the resistances are combined in a DC circuit. The resulting equivalent impedance is in general, a complex quantity. That is, the equivalent impedance has a real part and an imaginary part. The real part is denoted with an R and the imaginary part is denoted with an X. Thus:
 Req is termed the resistive part of the impedance while Xeq is termed the reactive part of the impedance. It is therefore common to refer to a capacitor or an inductor as a reactance or equivalently, a reactive component (circuit element). Additionally, the impedance for a capacitance is negative imaginary while the impedance for an inductor is positive imaginary. Thus, a capacitive reactance refers to a negative reactance while an inductive reactance refers to a positive reactance.
A reactive component is distinguished by the fact that the sinusoidal voltage across the component is in quadrature with the sinusoidal current through the component. This implies that the component alternately absorbs energy from the circuit and then returns energy to the circuit. That is, unlike a resistance, a reactance does not dissipate power.
It is instructive to determine the value of the capacitive reactance at the frequency extremes. As the frequency approaches zero, the capacitive reactance grows without bound so that a capacitor approaches an open circuit for very low frequency sinusoidal sources. As the frequency increases, the capacitive reactance approaches zero so that a capacitor approaches a short circuit for very high frequency sinusoidal sources.
Conversely, the inductive reactance approaches zero as the frequency approaches zero so that an inductor approaches a short circuit for very low frequency sinusoidal sources. As the frequency increases, the inductive reactance increases so that an inductor approaches an open circuit for very high frequency sinusoidal sources.
Combining impedances Combining impedances in series, parallel, or in delta-wye configurations, is the same as for resistors. The difference is that combining impedances involves manipulation of complex numbers.
In series Combining impedances in series is simple: 
In parallel Combining impedances in parallel is much more difficult than combining simple properties like resistance or capacitance, due to a multiplication term.  In rationalized form the equivalent resistance is:    See also Series and parallel circuits. Left: Series / Right: Parallel Arrows indicate direction of current flow. ...
Circuits with general sources Impedance is defined by the ratio of two phasors where a phasor is the complex peak amplitude of a sinusoidal function of time. For more general periodic sources and even non-periodic sources, the concept of impedance can still be used. It can be shown that virtually all periodic functions of time can be represented by a Fourier series. Thus, a general periodic voltage source can be thought of as a (possibly infinite) series combination of sinusoidal voltage sources. Likewise, a general periodic current source can be thought of as a (possibly infinite) parallel combination of sinusoidal current sources. Periodicity is the quality of occurring at regular intervals (e. ...
In mathematics, a periodic function is a function that repeats its values after some definite period has been added to its independent variable. ...
The Fourier series, named in honor of Joseph Fourier (1768-1830), is an extremely useful mathematical tool. ...
Using the technique of Superposition, each source is activated one at a time and an AC circuit solution is found using the impedances calculated for the frequency of that particular source. The final solutions for the voltages and currents in the circuit are computed as sums of the terms calculated for each individual source. However, it is important to note that the actual voltages and currents in the circuit do not have a phasor representation. Phasors can be added together only when each represents a time function of the same frequency. Thus, the phasor voltages and currents that are calculated for each particular source must be converted back to their time domain representation before the final summation takes place. The term superposition can have several meanings: Quantum superposition Law of superposition in geology and archaeology Superposition principle for vector fields Superposition Calculus is used for equational first-order reasoning This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...
This method can be generalized to non-periodic sources where the discrete sums are replaced by integrals. That is, a Fourier transform is used in place of the Fourier series. The Fourier transform, named after Joseph Fourier, is an integral transform that re-expresses a function in terms of sinusoidal basis functions, i. ...
Magnitude and phase of impedance Complex numbers are commonly expressed in two distinct forms. The rectangular form is simply the sum of the real part with the product of j and the imaginary part:  The polar form of a complex number is the product of a real number called the magnitude and another complex number called the phase:  Where the magnitude is given by:  and the angle is given by:  Alternately, the magnitude is given by:  Where Z* denotes the complex conjugate of Z:  .
Peak phasor versus rms phasor A sinusoidal voltage or current has a peak amplitude value as well as an rms (root mean square) value. It can be shown that the rms value of a sinusoidal voltage or current is given by: RMS may mean: root mean square, a concept in statistics and electronics Richard M. Stallman, a computer programmer and founder of the GNU project. ...
  In many cases of AC analysis, the rms value of a sinusoid is more useful than the peak value. For example, to determine the amount of power dissipated by a resistor due to a sinusoidal current, the rms value of the current must be known. For this reason, phasor voltage and current sources are often specified as an rms phasor. That is, the magnitude of the phasor is the rms value of the associated sinusoid rather than the peak amplitude. Generally, rms phasors are used in electrical power engineering whereas peak phasors are often used in low-power circuit analysis.
In any event, the impedance is clearly the same whether peak phasors or rms phasors are used as the scaling factor cancels out when the ratio of the phasors is taken.
Matched impedances When fitting components together to carry electromagnetic signals, it is important to match impedance, which can be achieved with various matching devices. Failing to do so is known as impedance mismatch and results in signal loss and reflections. The existence of reflections allows the use of a time-domain reflectometer to locate mismatches in a transmission system. Electromagnetism is the physics of the electromagnetic field: a field, encompassing all of space, which exerts a force on those particles that possess the property of electric charge, and is in turn affected by the presence and motion of such particles. ...
Signaling or signal may mean: Look up signal and signaling in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...
Impedance mismatch has two meanings. ...
In telecommunication, a time-domain reflectometer (TDR) is an electronic instrument used to characterize and locate faults in metallic cables ( twisted pair, coax). ...
For example, a conventional radio frequency antenna for carrying broadcast television in North America was standardized to 300 ohms, using balanced, unshielded, flat wiring. However cable television systems introduced the use of 75 ohm unbalanced, shielded, circular wiring, which could not be plugged into most TV sets of the era. To use the newer wiring on an older TV, small devices known as baluns were widely available. Today most TVs simply standardize on 75-ohm feeds instead. Rough plot of Earths atmospheric transmittance (or opacity) to various wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation, including radio waves. ...
A yagi antenna Most simply, an antenna is an electronic component designed to send or receive radio waves. ...
Coaxial cable is often used to transmit cable television into the house Cable television or Community Antenna Television (CATV) (often shortened to cable) is a system of providing television, FM radio programming and other services to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted directly to people’s televisions through fixed optical...
A balun is a device designed to convert between balanced and unbalanced electrical signals, such as between coaxial cable and twin-lead (pronounced lēd like reed, not lĕd like red). ...
Inverse quantities The reciprocal of a non-reactive resistance is called conductance. Similarly, the reciprocal of an impedance is called admittance. The conductance is the real part of the admittance, and the imaginary part is called the susceptance. Conductance and susceptance are not the reciprocals of resistance and reactance in general, but only for impedances that are purely resistive or purely reactive. Conductance can refer to: Electrical conductance, the reciprocal of electrical resistance. ...
In electrical engineering, the admittance (Y) is the inverse of the impedance (Z). ...
In electrical engineering, the susceptance (B) is the imaginary part of the admittance. ...
Acoustic impedance In complete analogy to the electrical impedance discussed here, one also defines acoustic impedance, a complex number which describes how a medium absorbs sound by relating the amplitude and phase of an applied sound pressure to the amplitude and phase of the resulting sound flux. The acoustic impedance Z (or sound impedance) is the ratio of sound pressure p to particle velocity v in a medium or acoustic component. ...
Data-transfer impedance Another analogous coinage is the use of impedance by computer programmers to describe how easy or difficult it is to pass data and flow of control between parts of a system, commonly ones written in different languages. The common usage is to describe two programs or languages/environments as having a low or high impedance mismatch. In computing, a programmer is someone who does computer programming and develops computer software. ...
Impedance mismatch has two meanings. ...
Application to physical devices Note that the equations above only apply to theoretical devices. Real resistors, capacitors, and inductors are more complex and each one may be modeled as a network of theoretical resistors, capacitors, and inductors. Rated impedances of real devices are actually nominal impedances, and are only accurate for a narrow frequency range, and are typically less accurate for higher frequencies. Even within its rated range, an inductor's resistance may be non-zero. Above the rated frequencies, resistors become inductive (power resistors more so), capactiors and inductors may become more resistive. The relationship between frequency and impedance may not even be linear outside of the device's rated range. In electrical engineering or audio, the nominal impedance of an input or output is the equivalent impedance of all of the output or input circuitry of a device lumped into one (imaginary) component. ...
See also An antenna tuner, transmatch, antenna tuning unit, or ATU matches a transceiver with a fixed impedance (typically 50 ohms for modern transceivers) to a load (feed line and antenna) impedance which is unknown, complex or otherwise does not match. ...
In radio communications, characteristic impedance (acoustic impedance or sound impedance) of a uniform transmission line is the impedance of a circuit that, when connected to the output terminals of a line of arbitrary length, causes the line to appear infinitely long. ...
In telecommunication, the term balance return loss has the following meanings: 1. ...
In telecommunication, the term balancing network has the following meanings: 1. ...
Bridging loss: At a given frequency, the loss that results when an impedance is connected across a transmission line. ...
The damping factor in an electrical circuit gives the ratio of the impedances of two electronic devices, the load impedance (input impedance) and the source impedance (output impedance). ...
Forward echo: In a transmission line, an echo propagating in the same direction as the original wave and consisting of energy reflected back by one discontinuity and then forward again by another discontinuity. ...
A harmonic oscillator is a system which, when displaced from its equilibrium position, experiences a restoring force proportional to the displacement : where is a positive constant. ...
For the amplifier configuration, see bridged amplifier. ...
Impedance matching is the practice of attempting to make the output impedance of a source equal to the input impedance of the load to which it is ultimately connected, usually in order to maximise the power transfer and minimise reflections from the load. ...
In telecommunication, the term loading means the insertion of impedance into a circuit to change the characteristics of the circuit. ...
Log-periodic dipole array In telecommunication, a log-periodic antenna (LP, also known as a log-periodic array) is a broadband, multielement, unidirectional, narrow-beam antenna that has impedance and radiation characteristics that are regularly repetitive as a logarithmic function of the excitation frequency. ...
In science, a physical constant is a physical quantity whose numerical value does not change. ...
The term reflection coefficient is used in physics and electrical engineering when wave propagation in a medium containing discontinuities is considered. ...
In telecommunication, the term reflection loss has the following meanings: 1. ...
Reflection in electricity is the result of impedance mismatch in electrical signals. ...
In physics, resonance is the tendency of a system to absorb more energy when the frequency of the oscillations matches the systems natural frequency of vibration (its resonant frequency) than it does at other frequencies. ...
In telecommunication, return loss is the ratio, at the junction of a transmission line and a terminating impedance or other discontinuity, of the amplitude of the reflected wave to the amplitude of the incident wave. ...
The sensitivity of an electronic device, a communications system receiver, or detection device, PIN diode, is the minimum magnitude of input signal required to produce a specified output signal having a specified signal-to-noise ratio, or other specified criteria. ...
When a signal is transmitted along a transmission medium, such as a copper cable or an optical fibre, there is the possibility that some of the signal power is reflected back to its origin, rather than being carried all the way along the cable to the far end. ...
A impedance Smith chart (with no data plotted) A Smith chart is a type of graph used in electrical engineering that shows how the complex impedance of a transmission line varies along its length, and simplifies the design of matching networks to match the line to its load. ...
A standing wave, also known as a stationary wave, is a wave that remains in a constant position. ...
In telecommunication, a time-domain reflectometer (TDR) is an electronic instrument used to characterize and locate faults in metallic cables ( twisted pair, coax). ...
In telecommunication, standing wave ratio (SWR) is the ratio of the amplitude of a partial standing wave at an antinode (maximum) to the amplitude at an adjacent node (minimum). ...
Wave impedance: At a point in an electromagnetic wave, the ratio of the electric field strength to the magnetic field strength. ...
In the analysis of an alternating-current electrical circuit (for example a RLC series circuit), reactance is the imaginary part of impedance, and is caused by the presence of inductors or capacitors in the circuit. ...
// Definition Inductance is a measure of the amount of magnetic flux produced for a given electric current. ...
In electrical engineering or audio, the nominal impedance of an input or output is the equivalent impedance of all of the output or input circuitry of a device lumped into one (imaginary) component. ...
Mechanical impedance is the inverse of the mechanical admittance. ...
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