Ohm’s Law, simply statedThe power behind effective relationships.

No matter what your business, you need to know the lingo.

Mechanic

Horsepower

RPM

Torque

Compression

Psi

SOHC

Firefighter

CPR

GPM

Combustion

AFFF

Tetrahedron

Backdraft

If you want to be a Power Line Worker, you need to speak electrically.

To truly understand electricity we will need an in-depth study of atoms, matter, elements, magnetism, circuits, trigonometry and more.

For now let’s revisit some basic physics and algebra to help grab a handle on the basic theory of electricity.

Beginning with

Direct Current:

Let’s discover how volts, amps, and ohms are all connected!

The study of power is the study of relationships.

Don’t get discouraged!

Learning about electricity can seem overwhelming, like getting on a wheel that won’t end! You just need to jump on and eventually the light bulb in your head will click on and you will get it.

It takes one VOLT to push one amp through one ohm.

A VOLT: (E or V) is the unit of measure describing an amount of electromotive force and is sometimes referred to as electrical pressure. Available voltage is referred to as ‘potential’ energy. It does not flow itself, but pushes the current.

Think of it like water from a hose. Behind the closed valve pressure is present but water cannot flow until the valve is opened and a path provided to a region of lower pressure (path of least resistance). You now have the ‘potential’ to get wet.

It takes one volt to push one AMP through one ohm.

An AMP: (I or A) is the unit of measure describing the intensity or amount of current being pushed by the voltage.

One amp of current flows when one coulomb of electrons flows past a given point in one second. One coulomb contains 6.25 x 10 to the 18th power or 6,250,000,000,000,000,000 electrons. (Don’t hurt yourself) Just like it takes 128 ounces to equal one gallon, it takes this many electrons to make one coulomb.

Think of our garden hose analogy, amperage is like gallons per minute or in this example, gallons per second.

It takes one volt to push one amp through one OHM.

The OHM (R): is the unit of measure used to describe resistance to current flow.

Just like the water hose scenario, the valve can be partially open or closed to resist flow. Also, the hose (larger or smaller diameter) can have a resistance value, much like friction.

Without resistance there would be nothing to control or resist current flow and that is called a ‘short circuit’.

Worth a thousand words?

Ohm’s Law is a statement of proportion of Volts (E), Amps (I),and Resistance (R).

E= I x R

I = E/R

R =E/I

See how everything is related?

The current is directly proportional to the voltage and inversely proportional to the resistance.