Colombs,Amps,Volts,and Watts. HELP

[Mattius_]

Colombs,Amps,Volts,and Watts. HELP!

Homework Statement

A given car battery is rated at 250 amp-hours. Does this rating indicate the amount of energy, power, charge, voltage, or current that can be drawn from the battery? Explain.

Homework Equations

Coulombs, Amps, Volts, Watts.

The Attempt at a Solution

I first calculated the coulombs that this battery produces in one hour. That turned out to be 250amp-hours X 3600seconds= 900,000.

Is this the furthest that I can get?? I am really stumped because I thought I could get more than just the number of coulombs. I tried finding out how many electrons pass through (2.25x10^22) but it seems like I cannot learn joules or voltage by knowing how many total electrons a battery is capable of dispensing.

I guess my problem is that I am equating the total number of electrons as a sort of total amount of energy. This is wrong?

 

[Mentz114]

Your calculation has the right dimensions and is correct. But the 3600 is not seconds, it's just a number to convert the hours to seconds.

Amp-hours is charge because amp=Coulomb/s.

 

[m2003]

The rating of a car battery in amp-hours indicates the amount of charge that can be drawn from the battery, not the amount of energy, power, voltage or current. Amp-hours is a unit of charge, specifically the amount of charge that flows in one hour at a steady rate of one ampere. This value is useful for determining the capacity of a battery, as it tells us how long the battery can provide a certain amount of current before it needs to be recharged. However, to calculate the energy or power that the battery can provide, we would also need to know the voltage. Voltage is a measure of the potential difference between two points, and it is necessary to take into account when calculating energy and power. To find the energy or power of a battery, you would need to multiply the voltage by the charge (in coulombs) or the current (in amps). So, while knowing the total number of electrons in a battery may not directly give you the energy or power, it is an important factor in calculating these values.