There are three basic terms for electricity that should be learned:
1) Volts. Named after Volta, inventor of the battery (Voltaic Pile). (Actually other batteries
are known of that are as old as ancient Babylon!) Voltage is the potential for electricity to do something. Voltage,
such as supplied by a battery, does nothing without a wire or other device
connected. It may be helpful to think of voltage as a reservoir filled with water;
the water has the potential to flow but does not unless there is a path for it to flow.
To carry the example on more step; The larger the reservoir the longer it can supply water.
The same is true of a battery the larger it is the longer it can supply current (amps). Which leads
us to ...
2)Amperes. Amperes, or Amps as they are usually called, are the measurement
of the flow of electrons in an electrical circuit (commonly called electric
current or current flow). The amount of water flowing out of the
flood gate of our example reservoir would be expressed in amps.
On a safety note; Volts don't hurt you Amps do. Remember Voltage is only the
potential for electron flow. The amount of electron flow is what can hurt
and is expressed in amperes or amps.
3)Ohms. Ohms are the expression for electrical resistance. A
small floodgate on our reservoir would be said to have a higher resistance than a larger
floodgate. So the higher the resistance the less current (amps) flows.
This relationship is expressed in the equation:
Volts = Amps x Ohms
So if you have a 10 volt battery and a 10 ohm light you would have
1 ampere of current flow.
We will move on from this formula for now but it is very important to the
understanding of electricity's relationship to the world. It is called "Ohms Law"
and yes there really was a cool old dude named Ohm.
