Electrical Engineering Fundamentals/Voltage Sources

A voltage source provides a potential difference.

A DC voltage source with constant voltage $V_{s}$ connected to a resistor

There are several types of voltage sources. The most common ones are direct current (DC) and alternating current (AC) .

A DC voltage source has constant voltage across its terminals. Examples of DC voltage sources are batteries and solar cells.

An AC voltage source has a voltage across its output the shape of sine wave with constant amplitude:

$V(t)=V_{p}\sin(\omega t+\delta )\,$

where

$V(t)\,$ is the voltage at time $t$

$V_{p}\,$ is the peak voltage

$\omega \,$ is the angular frequency

$t\,$ is the time

$\delta \,$ is some phase, which is often set to zero at $t=0\,$

An example of an AC voltage source is the AC generator.