Electric Circuits·power-calculation-passive-sign-convention

Power Calculation Passive Sign Convention

Given voltage and current values at a terminal, compute the instantaneous power using the passive sign convention (p = v·i), accounting for the polarity of current relative to voltage marking to determine whether power is being absorbed or generated.

✓ All 2 test cases pass.

Inputs

Voltage magnitude

Voltage across the terminal (units: V)

Current magnitude

Current at the terminal (units: A)

Current direction relative to voltage polarity

Sign indicator: +1 if current enters positive terminal, −1 if current enters negative terminal

Test cases

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#	Inputs	Expected	Got	Status
1	{"voltage":800000,"current":1800,"current_sign":-1}	-1440000000	-1440000000	✓
2	{"voltage":100,"current":5,"current_sign":1}	500	500	✓

APIDeveloper APICall this calculator from codeexpand ↓

Endpoint

POST/api/calculators/electric-circuits/power-calculation-passive-sign-convention/compute

Inputs (3)

voltagenumberdefault 800000
currentnumberdefault 1800
current_signintegerdefault -1

Example

curl -sX POST http://localhost:3001/api/calculators/electric-circuits/power-calculation-passive-sign-convention/compute \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"inputs":{"voltage":800000,"current":1800,"current_sign":-1}}'

Try it live

Edit the body below, then click Call API.

Request body

Response

(click Call API to see the response)

full API docs →

Source: Pattern from: James W. Nilsson, Susan A. Riedel - Electric Circuits 11e - Instructor’s Solution Manual-Pearson (2019).pdf. Reproduces a standard power-calculation-passive-sign-convention computation; problem text paraphrased.

AI disclosure: Calculator code generated by anthropic/claude-haiku-4-5-20251001; verified by 2 test cases.