Volts, currents, and resistance are terms we freely use in the electricity storage industry. However, do we think about their deeper meaning when we use them, or have they become shorthand labels? We decided it was time to get back to basics for a while. We wrote about how batteries work previously, and how electricity is the presence and flow of electrons. Today it’s the turn of measures of electrical (and battery) performances.
How Volts, Currents, and Resistance Are Important
Electricity is a bit like water flow in pipes. Large quantities of water power hydroelectric generators, whereas dentists use tiny amounts to rinse individual teeth. We can watch water flowing as we adjust supply, pressure and pipe capacity.
Managing electricity flow is more complex because we can only see the result in a resistor. However, we can manage it by balancing volts currents and resistance specific to a device. A simple example is choosing the right battery to power a piece of equipment. After all, we would never think of using a nine-volt battery to start the car in the morning !
George Ohm
We use volts, currents, and resistance as measures to describe electricity flowing. Returning to the water flow analogy, we can compare volts to water pressure, current to the rate of water flow, and resistance to the diameter of the pipe.
Georg Ohm defined the relationship between volts, current, and resistance in 1827, although it took two decades for his peers to recognize the significance of his work. Thanks to his discovery we know that current passing through a resistor between two points is related to the voltage difference between those two points, and inversely related to the electrical resistance between the two.
Related
Back to Basics: How Does a Battery Work?
What is Electricity Flowing from Batteries?
Preview Image: Georg Ohm’s Law Laboratory Notes
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