What is Potential Difference?
- While potential difference may look new, it is actually a familiar face.
- Potential difference is another term for voltage.
- Although they all refer to the same thing, voltage and potential difference are generally used when talking about circuits and electric potential is used when referring to electric fields.
- Voltage, is written as V and measured in volts, also written as V.
- Voltage is the work done per unit charge on moving a positive charge between two points along the path of a current.
- It is given as:
- From the formula we can see that one volt is equal to one joule per coulomb.
- The work done by voltage can thus be found by multiplying the voltage with the charge.
- Voltage can be thought of as the force that "pushes" electrons along a circuit.
- For electrons to move there must be a "potential difference" which is the difference in the charges on two ends of a battery.
- A greater potential difference, or voltage, means a greater push, which causes an increase in current.