Questions about electricity.

[CrysisMcGee]

Just some basic questions. Hearing electricital terms used quite a bit, but not sure about them.

1.What exactly are volts and amps, and how do they relate to one another?
2.How can you have 10,000 volts in a static charge?
3. I believe Watts are a measurment of resistant in lightbulbs, but correct me if I'm wrong, and are Watts used to describe anything else?

 

[El Poncho]

Uh, well Amps is the current flowing through a circuit, volts is the Voltage and Watts is power, resistance is ohms.

 

[Jaranja]

1. I'm really rusty on this but, I think Voltage is the force pushing the electricity (kinda) and Amps is the Current.
2. I don't know.
3. Watts are used to measure power.

EDIT:

Uh, well Amps is the current flowing through a circuit, volts is the Voltage and Watts is power, resistance is ohms.

Anyone can become a ninja, these days.

 

[Captain Lag]

1. I had a teacher in high school who explained it pretty well. Watts are how much power it takes to run that object, volts are how much energy you have, and amps are something like how fast you get it. In RPG terms, watts would be mana cost, volts would be your total mana, and amps is cast time if amps are what I think they are.
2. ?
3. Ohms are the measurement of resistance and watts are what I explained in 1

 

[TheNamlessGuy]

DELETED

 

[FranzTyphid]

I am really bad at science because my school cant afford any batterys..
I live in scotland.

 

[GundamSentinel]

Just some basic questions. Hearing electricital terms used quite a bit, but not sure about them.

1.What exactly are volts and amps, and how do they relate to one another?
2.How can you have 10,000 volts in a static charge?
3. I believe Watts are a measurment of resistant in lightbulbs, but correct me if I'm wrong, and are Watts used to describe anything else?

1. Amps are the current through an electric system, you could say the 'speed' of an electric system. 1 Ampere is 1 Coulomb (amount of electrical charge) per second that passes through the circuit. Voltage is the potential difference, the 'force' of the circuit, it is used up by electical systems like lamps or resistors.
2. Look at lightning.
3. Nope, Ohm is the measurement of resistance. Watt is the electric power (or voltage multiplied by the current (Volt*Ampere)).

 

[DoctorNick]

If you use the analogy of pipes then voltage is the 'pressure' of the electrons and amperage is the 'rate of flow'

Watts are a measure of the consumption of energy, so one watt is one joule of energy consumed per second. (Remember kids, energy and power are not the same thing!)

 

[El Poncho]

Anyone can become a ninja, these days.

Spoiler

It's what I do...occasionally.

 

[DragonsAteMyMarbles]

1. Voltage (volt/V) = current (amp/A) multiplied by resistance (ohm/&Omega.
1A = 1V divided by 1Ω.

2. "Static charge" is generated by concentrating charged particles in one place, with nowhere for them to go. It's measured in coulombs, not volts - voltage only applies to complete circuits.

3. The watt(W) is a measure of power. 1W = 1V times 1A.

 

[Threesan]

I'm sure you'll find a better answer, but...

1) I think of voltage as a pushing force. It will cause amps (current, the flow of electricity), if it is able (depending on resistance).

2) You can still have a push on something that isn't moving, like pushing on a wall. Doesn't go anywhere. Unless I reduce the resistance, say removing supports on the other side, or closing a circuit, then the current can flow, or the wall can fall over. As to how you can have it, you have a collection of molecules with a net surplus or deficit of electrons. (Or with other charged particles.)

3) Watts are power, which is energy over time, and can be used in the same way as horsepower, for example. Or how much energy is released by the sun in the form of electromagnetic radiation in the span of a second.

I guess wattage on a lightbulb would be how much energy it burns over time to make heat and light. Which is related to resistance, but I'm not entirely clear on this... If you graph power consumption versus resistance, will it be sort of a bell shape, low at low and high resistance, and high in the middle? (Or is it that low resistance is high power consumption? I'm confused. An open circuit has very high resistance and consumes very little power, but a grounded AC connection should also consume little?...)

 

[PinkAngelKitty]

Amps refers to the current. Volts is like the power of the charge. Watts are a measure of joules (which is a measurement of energy) per second. Ohms is the measure of resistance.

 

[Velvo]

Dude, you ask Escapist forums for this? The sum total of almost all human knowledge at your fingertips and you ask people on a forum? At least wiki it, jeepers.

 

[CrysisMcGee]

1. Voltage (volt/V) = current (amp/A) multiplied by resistance (ohm/&Omega.
1A = 1V divided by 1Ω.

2. "Static charge" is generated by concentrating charged particles in one place, with nowhere for them to go. It's measured in coulombs, not volts - voltage only applies to complete circuits.

3. The watt(W) is a measure of power. 1W = 1V times 1A.

Allright, thanks to everyone who answered. My questions have been answered.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

Imagine electricity like a river of electrons. Voltage is like the volume of water. Amperes are like the speed of the water. If you stick your hand in a body of static water like a lake you still get wet. (okay, I just pulled the last one out of thin air)

Power is measured in Watts which is Voltage * Amperes.

Amperes = Voltage / Resistance so when a power supply stays the same, resistance can change the relationship between amps and voltage.

 

[Threesan]

Dude, you ask Escapist forums for this? The sum total of almost all human knowledge at your fingertips and you ask people on a forum? At least wiki it, jeepers.

Using wikipedia, have you ever gleaned an intuitive understanding of, say, Adjoint Functors [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_adjoint] without extensive background information? Even with wiki linking click-throughs, it's just an endless stream of foreign concepts with no apparent entry point. Granted, google might work better.

 

[Threesan]

2. "Static charge" is generated by concentrating charged particles in one place, with nowhere for them to go. It's measured in coulombs, not volts - voltage only applies to complete circuits.

I would think voltage would still be a valid metric, not of how much charge you have stored exactly, but of how badly that charge wants to leave. There is still an electric potential difference, and you can still lose or gain electrons from the atmosphere (but then what happens in a vacuum.. huuh).

 

[Bofus Teefus]

I can only answer one question right now, so I pick...this one.

1.What exactly are volts and amps, and how do they relate to one another?

There are some pretty good answers up there already, but I find that dumbing this down a bit can really help people understand it. Think of electricity going through a wire like water going through a hose. The way we measure and describe these two are really quite similar.

Voltage - a measure of electrical charge, or driving force behind the electrical current. It's like the pressure of the water in the hose.
Amps - a measure of how much electrical current is passing through a point. This is like the volume of water going through a hose.

You didn't ask for this, but you usually hear about resistance, so...

Resistance (measured in ohms) - is just what it sounds like. Resistance to electric current. This would be like having something partially blocking the water hose.

Hope this helps.

 

[DragonsAteMyMarbles]

2. "Static charge" is generated by concentrating charged particles in one place, with nowhere for them to go. It's measured in coulombs, not volts - voltage only applies to complete circuits.

I would think voltage would still be a valid metric, not of how much charge you have stored exactly, but of how badly that charge wants to leave. There is still an electric potential difference, and you can still lose or gain electrons from the atmosphere (but then what happens in a vacuum.. huuh).

You're right, a true static charge could only exist in a vacuum, so the charge had literally nowhere to go and nothing to travel through.
Air contains a small percentage of charged particles (ions, electrons, positrons etc), which could, theoretically, form part of a circuit, but given the relative amount of uncharged particles that the charged ones could collide with (sending them off in another direction) plus the chance of oppositely charged particles cancelling each other out (or annihilating each other, in the case of positrons) then it's pretty unlikely without one hell of a charge building up on either side. Like the conditions needed to generate lightning.

 

[Threesan]

3) Watts are power, which is energy over time, and can be used in the same way as horsepower, for example. Or how much energy is released by the sun in the form of electromagnetic radiation in the span of a second.

I guess wattage on a lightbulb would be how much energy it burns over time to make heat and light. Which is related to resistance, but I'm not entirely clear on this... If you graph power consumption versus resistance, will it be sort of a bell shape, low at low and high resistance, and high in the middle? (Or is it that low resistance is high power consumption? I'm confused. An open circuit has very high resistance and consumes very little power, but a grounded AC connection should also consume little?...)

So, if P=IV, 60W=I*120V, I=.5A... V=IR, 120V=.5A*R, R=240 Ohms.
P=VV/R, R=VV/P, R=120V*120V/100W= 144 Ohms...

Well, obviously the equation says P is inversely proportional to R,.... so, a grounded AC connection would drain power... inversely proportional to the resistance of whatever it's grounded to???