volts, watts, amps, load, current, AC/Dc

[jsoceanlord]

i give up. it's too confusing.

 

[trainerjet]

Not surprised.

 

[bobbysamd]

i give up. it's too confusing.

I thought that AC-DC was a rock band that did the song in the Jeep or Ford Truck commercial or something.

 

[cointyro]

It's all like water flowing downhill. Waterfalls, creeks, streams, dams, etc. Or something.

 

[WrightAvia]

It's not the voltage that kills, It's the amperage.

 

[bigr]

this is simplistic but here goes

a volt is electromotive force, think of it as pressure in a pipeline, you have to have it to have a current flow (amps).

an amp is the flow of electrons, think of it as water in a pipe, in a pipe you have to have pressure to have water flow, in a wire you have to have voltage difference to have electrons flow. i believe an amp is measured in "coulombs per second" (coulombs/sec).

watts are power. power can also be defined as H.P. (horsepower). 1 horsepower is 550 foot-pounds per second. in other words the amount of work required to move a 1 pound object 550 feet in 1 second or move 550 pounds 1 foot in 1 second.

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/motor1.htm

 

[CLCAP]

Can be confusing but this works for me:

Watts: Amount of power (Visualize the amount of water that is passing by you when you look at a river)
Volts = "potential or pull force" (visualize the speed of the river)
Amps = Current "amount of electricity" (visualize the thickness and depth of the water in the river)

Watts = Volts * Amps (Think about that river )

Load (in airplanes) = load on a generator or alternator - since a generator or alternator is rated at a constant number of volts (ie 115 or 28) the only way to increase the "work" performed by it (ie watts) is to increase the amps (Remeber Watts = Volts * Amps)

DC = Direct Current = Volts remain the same all the time, like a 24V battery.

AC = Alternating Current = Volts go back and forth (ie 120V AC in your electrical outlet in your house, the volts go from 0 up to 120 through 0 down to -120 and back up to 0 - 60 times every second (and the 60 is hertz) - looks like a sine curve on a graph)

Most modern jets use a combination of AC/DC - some generate AC as and then "rectify" (convert) it to DC when needed - some "generate" DC and "invert" (convert) it to AC when needed.

Hope it helped.....

 

[cointyro]

See, I knew it had something to do with rivers.

 

[2000flyer]

So the dam is a voltage regulator!

 

[skyking1976]

Isn't it ironic that when describing properties of electricity, you use the one thing with what it does not mix. Water. And I guess a Hydroelectric power plant could be compared to a TRU or inverter.

Skyking

 

[CLCAP]

Hehe..that's right....the reservoir on the "high" side of the dam could be the battery....

 

[Hopeless_in_GA]

I don’t believe in electricity!

No one has yet to explain to me how the little electrons keep from falling out of the wall sockets…

 

[Flying Illini]

No one has yet to explain to me how the little electrons keep from falling out of the wall sockets…

I've never thought about it before but now that you bring it up...

 

[firstthird]

V = IR

the rest can be derived.

 

[Airpiraterob]

ever read that news headline years ago?

"AC/DC Fan crushed at concert"

 

[ILikePlanes]

Ohm's Law /\
/ \
/ E \
/___\
/ | \
/ I | R \
/___|___\

E=voltage
I= amperage
R=resistance

E=IxR
R=E/I
I=E/R

Sorry, the triangle won't come out right.

 

[Timebuilder]

Forrest M Mimms III authored a book a couple of decades ago that was a masterwork of explaining the activity of those pesky electrons in everyday language. You may still find a copy at radio shack, or a replacement book. The cover was some sort of graphic with a green tint.

Also, despite the demise of their consumer stores, the Heathkit Company is still in business as an "educational" company. They don't post the prices for their self-teaching courses on the website, but you can call them.

As long as you don't delve into the impedance problems of AC circuits, most of the formulas are very simple. You might want to build a few simple projects from the components at your local Radio Shack store. It's fun, and the whole thing becomes much less forbidding if you have just a little exposure to the principles. Ohms law is fine, but it doesn't bring the subject to life the way a few simple experiments will.

If you can't afford more than a few dollars for learning about this, many hobby and toy stores have boxed projects with names like "Electric Experiments Lab". If you know next to nothing about DC circuits, this is a beginning.