Understanding Voltage: A Fundamental Concept in Electric Circuits

[Ant92]

I'm doing AS-level physics at the moment and we have moved onto circuits, current, etc. I feel a bit of an idiot but i cannot seem to describe in fully what voltage is. this is mainly because i don't really know. i understand that it represents the potential difference in a circuit, but i have limited understanding of that too. i can remember equations etc, regarding voltage, (V=IR, V=P/I, etc), i just cannot explain it if a question asks me too. any help would be appreciated.

thank you


My try at explaining it

It has some thing to do with the pd of a circuit which when all the the pd across a circuit is combined it is the same as the electromotive force provided by the power cell

 

[Kruum]

If you can understand what gravitational potential is you can then understand what electrical potential is. Let's say you want to lift an object of mass m to height h. Now when you start to lift the object, gravitation starts to pull it down. If you want to beat the gravitiy you must do certain amount of work to get m to h.

Now electric potential is basically the same but the gravitation can change directions depending on the particles's charge. Now you have to plates one of them has a charge of Q and the other -Q and their distance is h. If you want to move a particle q from -Q to Q, you need to do certain amount of work. q is positively charged.

Does that help?

 

[Ant92]

so are you saying that the potential difference, (i.e. voltage), is the potential energy that will be needed to move a charged carrier to different points around a circuit?

 

[sirchasm]

Yup, voltage = charge potential. And charge is polarized already, which comes in handy.

 

[Ant92]

thankyou

 

[tiny-tim]

voltage = energy per charge

Hi v!

All the electric units are connected to each other and to ordinary units …

for example 1 volt = 1 joule per coulomb …

voltage = energy per charge …

in other words, the voltage between two points tells you how much energy you get if you move a charge across.