3 ms·
Wouldn't it be easier to just say "current is how many electrons flow through a specific section of the wire in a second" and "voltage is the force that makes t
by young_unixer 5y ago
Wouldn't it be easier to just say "current is how many electrons flow through a specific section of the wire in a second" and "voltage is the force that makes the electrons move"?
It's just as easy to understand without need for analogies.
- ionicgiraffe 5y agoThose two sentences that you wrote are precisely the hydraulic analogy. If it weren't, instead of electrons it would be charge (that can be positive or negative), or field strength (if you explain the transitory period of a capacitor or non-DC), and voltage would become not the force, but a number that applies to conservative fields that allows to calculate the capacity to do work relative to another such number...
- jcims 5y agoI would say that, in general, this is a tool most useful to help people that are completely new to the concept gain an intuition about the behavior. Based on what you've described, where would you develop the intuition about the difference in speed between the electrons and the electromotive force they are relaying? Or why you need both voltage and current to do work, or the behavior of an LCR circuit? Or an open circuit? Etc etc.
- gaze 5y agoAbsolutely not. You can't just throw out axioms and expect people to catch on. The utility of analogies is that you can anchor an idea in something people are familiar with.