What is voltage?

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I’ve heard the definitions of it being “energy transferred per charge”, “potential difference”, and “the difference between the electrons in the positive and negative terminals of a battery” but I still don’t really understand some of these definitions, and can’t really wrap my head around what exactly is it.

I also don’t really get how it is the thing that can “power up” a circuit (I might have misunderstood this part” and how the definitions above can be the same thing

In: Physics

9 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

You want to watch TV so you pick up the remote; press the on button and nothing happens; the battery’s dead. So, you replace it. Now the remote works and you can watch TV.

What changed? The circuit in the remote is the same, but you now have a live battery, able to supply power. This is the voltage. The ability to push electrons around a circuit. The more they’re pushed and the harder they work, the more energy is lost and the push gets weaker (which is why you probably had to press the button on the remote 2 or 3 times, maybe hold it down, the last few times before it completely gave up). The battery dies because the voltage has dropped to zero; i.e. the battery can’t push the electrons anymore at all.

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