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| Ohm's law |
Ohm's law states that the current through a conductor between two points is directly proportional to the voltage across the two points. Introducing the constant of proportionality, the resistance, one arrives at the usual mathematical equation that describes this relationship.
where I is the current through the conductor in units of amperes, V is the voltage measured across the conductor in units of volts, and R is the resistance of the conductor in units of ohms. More specifically, Ohm's law states that the R in this relation is constant, independent of the current. Ohm's law is an empirical relation which accurately describes the conductivity of the vast majority of electrically conductive materials over many orders of magnitude of current. However some materials do not obey Ohm's law, these are called non-ohmic.
The law was named after the German physicist Georg Ohm, who, in a treatise published in 1827, described measurements of applied voltage and current through simple electrical circuits containing various lengths of wire. Ohm explained his experimental results by a slightly more complex equation than the modern form above.
In physics, the term Ohm's law is also used to refer to various generalizations of the law; for example the vector form of the law used in electromagnetics and material science:
where J is the current density at a given location in a resistive material, E is the electric field at that location, and σ (sigma) is a material-dependent parameter called the conductivity. This reformulation of Ohm's law is due to Gustav Kirchhoff.
If two of these values are known, technicians can reconfigure Ohm's Law to calculate the third. Just modify the pyramid as follows:
If two of these values are known, technicians can reconfigure Ohm's Law to calculate the third. Just modify the pyramid as follows:
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| What is Ohm’s Law? |
What is the scope of Ohm's law?
Ohm's law is an empirical law, a generalization from many experiments that have shown that current is approximately proportional to electric field for most materials. It is less fundamental than Maxwell's equations and is not always obeyed. Any given material will break down under a strong-enough electric field, and some materials of interest in electrical engineering are "non-ohmic" under weak fields.
Ohm's law has been observed on a wide range of length scales. In the early 20th century, it was thought that Ohm's law would fail at the atomic scale, but experiments have not borne out this expectation. As of 2012, researchers have demonstrated that Ohm's law works for silicon wires as small as four atoms wide and one atom high.
This electronics video tutorial provides a basic introduction into ohm's law. It explains how to apply ohm's law in a series circuit and in a parallel circuit.
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