Editing Electrical element (section)

{{short description|Idealized versions of real electronic components used in circuit analysis}}
{{Distinguish|Heating element}}
{{More references|date=August 2022}}

In [[electrical engineering]], '''electrical elements''' are conceptual abstractions representing idealized [[electrical component]]s,<ref name="ThomasRosaToussaint_2016">{{cite book | title = The Analysis and Design of Linear Circuits | edition = 8 | first1 = Roland E. | last1 = Thomas | first2 = Albert J. | last2 = Rosa | first3 = Gregory J. | last3 = Toussaint | publisher = Wiley | year = 2016 | page = 17 | isbn = 978-1-119-23538-5 | quote = To distinguish between a device (the real thing) and its model (an approximate stand-in), we call the model a circuit element. Thus, a device is an article of hardware described in manufacturers’ catalogs and parts specifications. An element is a model described in textbooks on circuit analysis.}}</ref> such as [[resistor]]s, [[capacitor]]s, and [[inductor]]s, used in [[circuit analysis|the analysis]] of [[electrical network]]s.  All electrical networks can be analyzed as multiple electrical elements interconnected by wires. Where the elements roughly correspond to real components, the representation can be in the form of a [[Schematic diagram#Electronic industry|schematic diagram]] or [[circuit diagram]]. This is called a [[lumped-element model|lumped-element circuit model]]. In other cases, infinitesimal elements are used to model the network in a [[distributed-element model]].

These ideal electrical elements represent actual, physical [[Electronic component|electrical or electronic components]]. Still, they do not exist physically and are assumed to have ideal properties. In contrast, actual electrical components have less than ideal properties, a degree of uncertainty in their values, and some degree of nonlinearity. To model the nonideal behavior of a real circuit component may require a combination of multiple ideal electrical elements to approximate its function. For example, an inductor circuit element is assumed to have [[inductance]] but no [[Electrical resistance and conductance|resistance]] or [[capacitance]], while a real inductor, a coil of wire, has some resistance in addition to its inductance. This may be modeled by an ideal inductance element in series with a resistance.

Circuit analysis using electric elements is useful for understanding practical networks of electrical components. Analyzing how a network is affected by its individual elements makes it possible to estimate how a real network will behave.