I like watching science videos on YouTube and I have a very basic understanding of electronics. But I never seem to get the “negative voltage” thing.
Why is it used and how does it differ from normal voltage.
In: 5
Voltage is measured as a difference between two points. What you choose to be zero is entirely arbitrary. Negative voltage is simply any place where current would want to flow from zero to that point. If I had a car battery (12V) I could say that the positive terminal is 0V and the negative terminal is -12V and all the math works out the same. I can also say the negative terminal is 100V and the positive terminal is 112V and still nothing changes. In all of these situations, the voltage across the battery is still 12V. Just choose an easy place to put 0 to simplify the math you have to do.
If you’re doing electrostatics, it’s easiest to make 0 be an infinite distance away so you don’t need to constantly adjust for your arbitrary 0.
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