How is it that you can divide 8 apples among two people but not 8 volts by 2 ohms? — Alan
For the same reason that you can divide 8 apples among two people but not 8 pears by 2 peaches? — Frank Apisa
It is no coincidence that dividing the voltage difference in a circuit over the resistance of a resistor in that circuit produces a unit of current - this is because the resistor impedes the flow of current across it relative to the voltage which facilitates the flow of current. So you can think of V = IR as R = V/I; the scaling of a potential difference to the current flow. — fdrake
olts divided by ohms do not mean pretty much anything. — Alan
For the same reason that you can divide 8 apples among two people but not 8 pears by 2 peaches? — Frank Apisa
They do. The usual way to ground electrical concepts in intuition is to treat potential difference - (PD) measured in volts - and current, measured in amps, as the fundamental quantities. Current can be thought of as number of electrons passing through a surface per second. PD can be thought of as an indication of the strength of electric field.volts divided by ohms do not mean pretty much anything — Alan
The volt/ohm is a ratio. — TheMadFool
No it doesn't ! It implies that people know the derived equation. That is not 'Ohm's Law' which specifies the concept 'proportionality' and naming 'the constant' as a physical property. My reply points out that no such concept applies to 'apples and people', and that reply highlights the superficiality of 'the question'. — fresco
The question has an answer which can be googled. This isn't even philosophy. — S
Nobody seems to have mentioned Ohm's Law which states that ...
Current flowing in a conductor is DIRECTLY PRORTIONAL to potential difference across its ends. Usually this is stated with p.d. as the subject
p.d ∝ current ....... p.d.= a constant x current ....... V= R x I
(NB With current as the subject the constant of proportionality would be 'conductance', the inverse of 'resistance')
The constant of proportionality was named after Ohm, and considered to be 'resistance'. Similarly 'current' and p.d. were named after other physicists, (Ampere and Volta)
There is NO physical theory involving a constant of proportionality relating 'apples' to 'persons' and that is the only basis of an answer to your question. — fresco
I usually don't ask in forums if I can google things myself. I'm clearly not satisfied by the answers on google and thought that this would need more than math to be explained. Hope that helps. — Alan
Why you should think what you said above is 'an answer' beats me! :smile: — fresco
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