6. Measuring Alternating Current - simphysoftwares/SimPHY-docs GitHub Wiki

In circuits having AC source or input, the voltage and current is expressed as RMS voltage and current respectively. “RMS” stands for Root Mean Square, and is a way of expressing an AC quantity of voltage or current in terms functionally equivalent to DC. For example, 20 volts AC RMS voltage would produce the same amount of heat dissipation across a resistor of given value as a 20 volt DC power supply.

In SimPHY circuit simulator when we use AC input or source, it takes some time to measure RMS value because data is being gathered for calculating mean value. The simulator takes time to predict the nature of input function i.e. sine wave function for AC circuits. Therefore to calculate voltage and current across AC circuits, we select the type of input waveform as sine wave in the Property Panel of Voltmeter or Ammeter.