Voltage

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What is "Voltage" in Electricity?

Voltage is the combination of forces that make electrons move from one point to another. The more voltage there is, the more electrons should move from one point to another, thus, voltage is always measured from one point to another, as we need to know what direction they're supposed to go in order to measure if they're really going toward that direction. The unit of measurement for voltage is the volt.

Quotes

Electric potential difference is also called “voltage” in many countries, as well as “electric tension” or
simply “tension” in some countries.

The International System of Units, 9th Edition [https://www.bipm.org/documents/20126/41483022/SI-Brochure-9-EN.pdf] (p. 138, accessed 2025-02-23)

The force motivating electrons to "flow" in a circuit is called voltage. Voltage is a specific measure of potential energy that is always relative between two points. When we speak of a certain amount of voltage being present in a circuit, we are referring to the measurement of how much potential energy exists to move electrons from one particular point in that circuit to another particular point. Without reference to two particular points, the term "voltage" has no meaning.

How voltage, current, and resistance relate [https://people.cs.pitt.edu/~wiebe/courses/CS447/Info/howVoltageCurrentResistanceRelate.html] (accessed 2025-02-23)

Observations

Voltage is sometimes defined as a single force that moves electrons. It's worth noting that there are multiple different ways to create voltage, such as through magnetic and chemical means. If we called these magnetic and chemical forces, then voltage must not be a single force by itself, but a measurement of the combination of forces interacting with the electrons. However, it's not clear to me what exactly counts as a "force" and what does not, so I could be wrong about this.

Written by Noel Santos.

About the Author

I'm a self-taught Brazilian programmer graduated in IT from a FATEC. In a world of increasingly complex and essential computers, I decided to use my technical expertise in hardware, desktop applications, and web technologies to create an informative resource to make PC's easier to understand.

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