What is active load and what is passive load? Why do we denote them as active and passive?

And what is the difference between them? please sir,help me to understand.

ANSWER: A load which is completely resistive is an active load; all the power goes into the resistance and is dissipated in heat and the current is in phase with the voltage.

A purely passive load is when either a capacitor or ideal inductor is connected to the load. In this case the current which flows through the generator/load circuit is 90 degrees out of phase and there is no heat generated nor power transferred to the load elements.

In the real world the load is mostly a combination of resistive, capacitive and inductive elements giving rise to a complex load called an impedance. It can be either slightly or largely capacitive or inductive but in either case some of the current is given to heating up the resistive element of the load impedance and the other is passive current that just circulates but does not use up any energy. The phase angle between the voltage and current is characterized by a the power factor; a ratio of the voltage and current angle.

Impedance is mathematically notated by its real part and the passive part using complex algebra and is expressed this way: Z = R + or - jX, where j is the square root of minus 1, or an imaginary number and X is the capacitive or inductive reactance.

You may want to refer to this explanation:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_impedance

You can google around for other explanations.

Hope this helps.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you sir,for your reply. Here actually I am confused about the active load and active component.In Wikipedia I've found that active component means that which can amplify or inject the the power in the circuit e.g transistors, triode vacuum tubes (valves) etc. Again the passive component means which can not amplify the power or

signal.They just dissipate or store the power according to supply.e.g resistor,diode.Here is the link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_component In another site someone directly denoted active load means MOSFET,BJT etc and passive load means resistor,inductor etc.here is the link http://www.edaboard.com/thread166418.html

Please sir,help me again to understand the facts.

Answer Yes, any switching device, non-linear element or active device that passes current continuously or in an interrupted fashion is still allowing both passive and active components of the power. As long as current is being dissipated into a resistive equivalent load it will consume energy. The reactive elements, capacitive or inductive, will send the energy back to the source.

In a power distribution system the reactive load elements are not desirable because the non-energy consuming currents still use up power in the transmission lines.

The edaboard forum comments you read are not correct; they are not from an authoritative source.

The wiki article is an authoritative comment and makes good sense to me.

All the best to you!