Ratch
Guest
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 Posted:
Wed Feb 16, 2005 10:10 pm Post subject:
Re: definition: voltage, current |
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"Rich Grise" <rich@example.net> wrote in message
news:pan.2005.02.15.22.28.16.338210@example.net...
| Quote: | On Sun, 13 Feb 2005 22:13:27 -0500, Paul Mars wrote:
Please do and throw in the Watt please.
BTW Your definition is more logical then what I learned. If you would
like
please comment on voltage being defined as the potential difference
between
two points period.
Voltage is defined as the potential difference between two points. The
"period" is a punctuation mark.
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No it is not defined that way. It is often confusingly described that
way. Potiential of what?
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Potential is like pressure.
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In what way? Force per unit area vs energy per coulomb!?
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When you compress a spring, you give it potential energy, which it
stores up in the form of the stress on the spring itself. When you
release the spring, that energy is released as "kinetic energy", but
that's another topic.
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No potential energy is converted into kinetic energy unless you propel
something like a pinball. It could just as easily be converted into heat by
connecting it to a dashpot.
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The point is, that "potential" corresponds to "pressure." It's
something like water flowing downhill, where the "potential energy" is
represented by the height of the water column - actually, the height is
the voltage - the current, obviously, is the flow, and the power is
the pressure times the flow.
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Does the above description help anyone to really understand what
voltage is? Ratch
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Now, if you just let the water fall, then the analogy to an electronic
circuit kind of breaks down, except that a waterfall might be kind of
conceptually like an arc.
But if it falls through a waterwheel, then you can extract energy from
it. The amount of energy you can extract at any given moment can be
expressed as (or derived from?) the flow rate multiplied by the pressure
difference. No, wait - rate - that's the rate at which you're extracting
energy. Energy and work are almost interchangeable - I had a physics
teacher who said, "Energy is the capacity to do work." Work, of course, is
force times distance. And power is the rate of doing work.
Hope This Helps!
Rich
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