Basic Electrical Question
Basic Electrical Question
(OP)
Hi
Excuse this question, I am an mechanical engineer, I was asked the following question by my son who is revising for his GCSE's and like a good dad said I would find out. I asked my electrical colleagues and they dont know the answer.
His question to me was "in Ohmls law, why is current represented by the letter I, when Volts are V and Resistance is R?"
Sorry if this is a little off topic but it certainly brought out some wild guesses amongst my colleauges.
Excuse this question, I am an mechanical engineer, I was asked the following question by my son who is revising for his GCSE's and like a good dad said I would find out. I asked my electrical colleagues and they dont know the answer.
His question to me was "in Ohmls law, why is current represented by the letter I, when Volts are V and Resistance is R?"
Sorry if this is a little off topic but it certainly brought out some wild guesses amongst my colleauges.
Thanks
Rich





RE: Basic Electrical Question
RE: Basic Electrical Question
Google led me to:
http://wik
Apparently it came from the french word but the Germans were involved.
Also you can't call both current and capacitance C or you'd have some confusion.
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RE: Basic Electrical Question
When a math formula uses "I" for current, to be consistent one would need to use "E" for voltage, not "V". "V" is the SI symbol for voltage, so consistency would dictate that you would use "A" for amperage in that context. Only the "R" for resistance remains the same for both electrical math formulae and SI units.
But when expressing a math formula for working with electricity, you use the standard math symbols, not the SI unit symbols.
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RE: Basic Electrical Question
TTFN
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RE: Basic Electrical Question
It seems the use of V for voltage is an English/American tradition, or?
Benta.
RE: Basic Electrical Question
[apologies to Walter Koenig, a.k.a. 'Chehov' in Star Trek]