reactance

reactance:

see impedance.

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Reactance

The imaginary part of the impedance of an alternating-current circuit.

The impedance Z of an alternating current circuit is a complex number given by Eq. (1).

(1) 

(2) 

(3) 

The imaginary part X is the reactance. The units of reactance, like those of impedance, are ohms. Reactance may be positive or negative. For example, the impedance of an inductor L at frequency &ohgr; is given by Eq. (2), so X is positive. The impedance of a capacitor C is given by Eq. (3), so X is negative.

The reactance of a circuit may depend on both the resistors and the inductors or capacitors in the circuit. For example, the circuit in the illustration has admittance [Eq. (4)] and impedance [Eq. (5)], so that the reactance [Eq. (6)], depends on both the capacitor C and the resistor R. (4)  (5)  (6)  See Admittance, Electrical impedance

Circuit with a resistor and capacitor in parallel

McGraw-Hill Concise Encyclopedia of Physics. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Reactance

 

in electricity, a quantity characterizing the opposition presented to an alternating current by the capacitance and inductance of a circuit or part of a circuit. Reactance is measured in ohms.

In the case of a sinusoidal current in a circuit where inductive and capacitive circuit elements are connected in series, the reactance x can be expressed as the difference between the inductive and capacitive reactances:

Here, to is the angular frequency of the current, L is the inductance of the circuit, and C is the capacitance of the circuit. Reactance is equal to the ratio of the amplitude of the voltage on the terminals of a circuit having little resistance and the amplitude of the current through the circuit. When an alternating current flows in a circuit having only reactance, energy is transferred from the current source to the electric or magnetic field produced, respectively, by the capacitive or inductive circuit element and then back to the current source; the average power during a period is equal to zero. The presence of reactance in a circuit causes a phase difference between the voltage and the current.

When the current in a circuit is nonsinusoidal, the reactance is different for the individual harmonic components of the current.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

reactance

[rē′ak·təns]

(electricity)

The imaginary part of the impedance of an alternating-current circuit.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

reactance

1. the opposition to the flow of alternating current by the capacitance or inductance of an electrical circuit; the imaginary part of the impedance Z, Z = R + iX, where R is the resistance, i = &#221A--1, and X is the reactance. It is expressed in ohms

2. the opposition to the flow of an acoustic or mechanical vibration, usually due to inertia or stiffness. It is the magnitude of the imaginary part of the acoustic or mechanical impedance

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005