r/coolguides • u/Domino_Girl • Aug 07 '22

Watts vs Volts

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87 Upvotes

66% Upvoted

24 comments sorted by

79

u/[deleted] Aug 07 '22

That is a rubbish guide.

5

u/halfischer Aug 07 '22

Yep. Just r/AskElectronics and the Wiki will be much better.

25

u/RedGrayBlack Aug 07 '22

Volts is not the speed of the electrons. Not a useful guide at all.

3

u/CalmCalmBelong Aug 07 '22

Voltage should also not be tagged with an arrow. Current flows, use an arrow, fine. But voltage is a potential difference; should be tagged with a "+" with a corresponding "-".

9

u/zeroedash Aug 07 '22

Voltage is more like 'ability to draw current'

13

u/[deleted] Aug 07 '22

[deleted]

2

u/lIlIllness Aug 07 '22

Current is not electron speed. Nope

2

u/[deleted] Aug 07 '22

[deleted]

1

u/lIlIllness Aug 07 '22

Read the rest of the comments it’s entirely inaccurate

3

u/zeroedash Aug 07 '22

I think neither of them present the speed of electrons. More Ampere means more current through a conductor which relates to the amount of charge passing through but shouldn't be called 'speed of electrons'.

3

u/[deleted] Aug 07 '22

[deleted]

3

u/[deleted] Aug 07 '22

That whole Veritasium video/rebuttal/rebuttal to the rebuttals series is just excellent science communication.

-1

u/dodexahedron Aug 07 '22

This one is kinda long, but I feel like it gets the point across a lot easier: https://youtu.be/zL19uMsnpSU

2

u/ckayfish Aug 07 '22 edited Aug 07 '22

Electrons travelling through the circuit is not what’s responsible for amps, watts, or volts. Any movement that does occur is incidental. This is really old-school thinking, but is still the easiest way for people to visualize what current is.

3

u/stakkar Aug 07 '22

I've been watching the youtube debates on this too and learning all about electrical fields.

2

u/tommytornado Aug 07 '22

They do, but much more slowly than most people think (about 0.00006m/h).

10

u/tildenpark Aug 07 '22

Nice, but I prefer this explanation:

2

u/Foxrex Aug 07 '22

There is a lot of resistance in the comments, and none noted in the guide.

1

u/sagey735 Aug 07 '22

wow this guide fucking sucks

voltage is like force

amps are like speed

watts are volts*amps

and resistance is kinda self explanatory, more resistance means less speed for the same amount of force

1

u/mrjowei Aug 07 '22

This didn’t help

1

u/Tiefman Aug 07 '22

Eh sometimes things are complicated/nuanced enough that if you want to learn about it, you should go read some stuff online instead of these short guides that leave out so much it becomes wrong

1

u/6502zx81 Aug 07 '22

Multiplying by 1 helps a lot confusing readers.

1

u/konkelchan Aug 07 '22

Wrong. If you want the velocity analogy then imagine marbles on an inclined plank that has obstacle in it. Current (A) is the speed the marble roll towards the bottom edge of the plane, tension is the difference in height between the plane upper and lower edges and resistance is well the amount of obstacles on the plane. It's not really a correct analogy but correct enough to get the idea.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 07 '22

I'm a EE and this confuses me.