Which trio is identified as the three types of power in the material?

• A. Active, Passive, Reactive
• B. True, Relative, Apparent
• C. Real, Reactive, Apparent
• D. Voltage, Current, Power

Answer: (B)

In AC circuits, power has three components: true (real) power, reactive power, and apparent power. True power is the actual energy converted to work or heat in the load, measured in watts. Reactive power is the energy alternately stored and returned by inductors and capacitors, it doesn’t do net work over a cycle but affects voltage and current, measured in volt-amps reactive. Apparent power is the overall power flow, the product of RMS voltage and RMS current, measured in volt-amps.

The material labels the trio as True, Relative, and Apparent. Here, True corresponds to the real power, Apparent is the total power, and Relative is the reactive portion (the energy stored and released each cycle). This framing still captures the essential idea: some power actually does work, some is stored and returned, and the combination is the apparent power.