- #1
FilthyMove
- 3
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Preface: Newbie here. Sorry if this has been asked before - I did have search but couldn't quite find what I was after. Also, I'm not putting this into the electrical engineering section because I don't want what will inevitably be an electrical engineer's answer =)
Here goes:
Voltage across a circuit (say a circuit from A to B) is the potential for work to be done through that circuit due to charge. If the charge at A equals the charge at B then no work will be done; it is when there is a difference between these charges that work can and will be done (from the higher toward the lower).
Yay? Nay?
The amount of current (amount of charge per second) going into a resistor equals the amount of current coming out from that resistor. If, for example, several resistors of very different resistances are places in series, the current flowing through them should be equal.
Yay? Nay?
What actually causes the voltage drop across a resistor if, as the previous statement points out, there can be no accumulation or reduction of charge at either end of the resistor? If the amount of charge per unit time flowing on both sides is the same, where does the potential difference come from?
Don't get me wrong - I know there *is* a potential drop and it wouldn't make sense for there to not be a drop, otherwise you could get work for nothing. But saying "it doesn't make sense not to" isn't much of an explanation to me.
Thanks a bunch!
Here goes:
Voltage across a circuit (say a circuit from A to B) is the potential for work to be done through that circuit due to charge. If the charge at A equals the charge at B then no work will be done; it is when there is a difference between these charges that work can and will be done (from the higher toward the lower).
Yay? Nay?
The amount of current (amount of charge per second) going into a resistor equals the amount of current coming out from that resistor. If, for example, several resistors of very different resistances are places in series, the current flowing through them should be equal.
Yay? Nay?
What actually causes the voltage drop across a resistor if, as the previous statement points out, there can be no accumulation or reduction of charge at either end of the resistor? If the amount of charge per unit time flowing on both sides is the same, where does the potential difference come from?
Don't get me wrong - I know there *is* a potential drop and it wouldn't make sense for there to not be a drop, otherwise you could get work for nothing. But saying "it doesn't make sense not to" isn't much of an explanation to me.
Thanks a bunch!