Can someone explain Volts, Amps and Watt's like I'm five?

[EIijah]

Watched a few YouTube videos and I'm still not 100% I kinda get it Yes I'm 18, and passed physics in highschool.......

[givingtnt]

snip

 

 

Amperage (amps for short) is a measure of the AMOUNT of electricity used. Voltage (volts) measures the pressure, or FORCE, of electricity. The amps multiplied by the volts gives you the wattage (watts), a measure of the WORK that electricity does per second.

thanks google

[Syntaxvgm]

Might be a little off, but here's my shot at OP's request of 'like he's 5', I'm really stretching this analogy. 

 

 

Anyway 

 

Imagine this tonka dump truck is electric current. 

How much this truck is carrying is the amperage. 

How fast it's moving is the voltage. 

How fast * how heavy =  how much it work it's doing to accomplish that

(The voltage * the Amperage gives you wattage)

 

 

I know someone's gonna nitpick this strained analogy 

[manikyath]

Amperage (amps for short) is a measure of the AMOUNT of electricity used. Voltage (volts) measures the pressure, or FORCE, of electricity. The amps multiplied by the volts gives you the wattage (watts), a measure of the WORK that electricity does per second.

couldnt have said it any better.

[givingtnt]

couldnt have said it any better.

I basically googled ''volt amp watt explained''

google gave me this exact sentence

[EIijah]

Amperage (amps for short) is a measure of the AMOUNT of electricity used. Voltage (volts) measures the pressure, or FORCE, of electricity. The amps multiplied by the volts gives you the wattage (watts), a measure of the WORK that electricity does per second.

So amps and volts is a little like the latency and frequency of RAM? I was thinking this but I wasn't sure

[UrdnotGrunt]

http://www.rapidtables.com/calc/electric/watt-to-kwh-calculator.htm

 

I use this site sometimes. It has a lot of different ways to convert from watts to amps to volts to joules......etc. It has formulas as well for converting

[EIijah]

I basically googled ''volt amp watt explained''

google gave me this exact sentence

I forget that google just answers the question most of the time...

[givingtnt]

So amps and volts is a little like the latency and frequency of RAM? I was thinking this but I wasn't sure

uh. im not sure. its been 2 years since iv done any science. 3 for electricity. and forget phisics.

latency is the time it takes for one bit of information to go from point a to point b. electricity can'T go faster or slower though. its instantanious. latency is caused by the processing of the information.

frequency is determined by the resestance (I think, correct me if im wrong) wich affects amps and wattage

[comicsansms]

Are you saying you didn't learn this in Physics?

[Juanse]

So amps and volts is a little like the latency and frequency of RAM? I was thinking this but I wasn't sure

NO, amp(amperium), is the amount of charge or intensity passing through a cable in c/s (an electron is 1.6*10-19c), volt is the potential difference between two objects, so it's by simple, a way to know how much current it could provide, and watt is the unit of power (A/V)

[EIijah]

http://www.rapidtables.com/calc/electric/watt-to-kwh-calculator.htm

 

I use this site sometimes. It has a lot of different ways to convert from watts to amps to volts to joules......etc. It has formulas as well for converting

Now I'm just sitting here working out how much it costs me to run every appliance for an hour or a day....

[Naeaes]

So amps and volts is a little like the latency and frequency of RAM? I was thinking this but I wasn't sure

It doesn't quite fit. I'd say the resistance (or impedance) would be the latency. Both make it work less efficiently and slower. You could think of amperage and voltage as DRAM speed and bandwidth.

[EIijah]

NO, amp(amperium), is the amount of charge or intensity passing through a cable in c/s (an electron is 1.6*10-19c), volt is the potential difference between two objects, so it's by simple, a way to know how much current it could provide, and watt is the unit of power (A/V)

Could you have 10 amps, 100 volts and 20 amps, 50 volts powering the same thing? I ask this because once I said that my charger was slow because it was only 5 volts not 10, and someone said that's no why it's because it's only .5 amps not 1 and I didn't really think much of it at the time

[T.Vengeance]

Best analogy I've heard is the use of a waterfall. Voltage really comes from charge differences. That's like the height of a waterfall. Current (amps) is the amount of electrons flowing per time. That is like the volume of water flowing down the waterfall. Together the product allows you to determine the work done, or watts. More water but less height is analogous to less water but more height.

 

If this makes total sense to you, it's a mere coincidence since my dad explained it to me this way when I was 5 too .

[EIijah]

Best analogy I've heard is the use of a waterfall. Voltage really comes from charge differences. That's like the height of a waterfall. Current (amps) is the amount of electrons flowing per time. That is like the volume of water flowing down the waterfall. Together the product allows you to determine the work done, or watts. More water but less height is analogous to less water but more height.

 

If this makes total sense to you, it's a mere coincidence since my dad explained it to me this way when I was 5 too .

That does make good sense

[UrdnotGrunt]

Now I'm just sitting here working out how much it costs me to run every appliance for an hour or a day....

hahaha if thats the case now. perhaps you should get a kill-a-watt meter. thats what I have my desktop and other pc related items on the power strip hooked up to. Current idles around 160-180 and load runs 210-225  it really is handy though

[EIijah]

Might be a little off, but here's my shot at OP's request of 'like he's 5', I'm really stretching this analogy. 

 

 

Anyway 

 

Imagine this tonka dump truck is electric current. 

How much this truck is carrying is the amperage. 

How fast it's moving is the voltage. 

How fast * how heavy =  how much it work it's doing to accomplish that

(The voltage * the Amperage gives you wattage)

 

 

I know someone's gonna nitpick this strained analogy 

That was actually very good, thanks

[T.Vengeance]

That does make good sense

Well it's the reason why lmgtfy links on this forum are banned. Honestly 80% of the questions here can be answered with google...Even quicker tbh. Waiting for a reply vs....2 second search result hmmmm....Calling out the people above who googled and copied the answer here.

[KemoKa]

Electricity = electrons = water, cable = pipe.

Amperage = how much water is going through the pipe at any given time.

Voltage = how much pressure the water is going through the pipe at. It affects how far the water would fly if the pipe were opened at the end. (which is why electricity at higher voltages can jump farther between source and ground). also affects how far the water can travel before slowing down.
Wattage = how much moving power the water has, like moving something out of the way. Little bit of water at high pressure, not gonna do it. Huge amounts of water at low pressure, not gonna do it. LOADS OF BOTH - now we're talkin'.

 

sidenote - impedance/resistance = how much stopping power an obstacle has. The more it has, the more power you need to push the thing out of the way.

 

I hate having to make analogies like this because water and electricity do not behave in the same way at all, but that's the best I can come up with at the moment. for instance, electricity moves at the same speed regardless of voltage, so voltage can't be speed. and you can have enough wattage to drive something, but not have enough volts or amps to do the thing. Which is why it can't really be moving power.

 

sigh...

[EIijah]

Well it's the reason why lmgtfy links on this forum are banned. Honestly 80% of the questions here can be answered with google...Even quicker tbh. Waiting for a reply vs....2 second search result hmmmm....Calling out the people above who googled and copied the answer here.

Well yes googling would have given me an answer quicker it's also a bit more annoying when I have follow up questions (and the people who googled the original question don't have an answer to either) so I prefer to ask some stuff like this on here

[SkilledRebuilds]

Might be a little off, but here's my shot at OP's request of 'like he's 5', I'm really stretching this analogy. 

 

 

Anyway 

 

Imagine this tonka dump truck is electric current. 

How much this truck is carrying is the amperage. 

How fast it's moving is the voltage. 

How fast * how heavy =  how much it work it's doing to accomplish that

(The voltage * the Amperage gives you wattage)

 

 

I know someone's gonna nitpick this strained analogy 

lol - Brilliant

Curious...Was a Dumptruck your first thought? Or did other thoughts come to mind that you discarded?

[Syntaxvgm]

lol - Brilliant

Curious...Was a Dumptruck your first thought? Or did other thoughts come to mind that you discarded?

I thought "toy cars" like hot wheels or something but a tonka truck quickly replaced that 

[EIijah]

I thought "toy cars" like hot wheels or something but a tonka truck quickly replaced that 

Yeah hot wheels are more of a 10 year old thing

[Yoinkerman]

Could you have 10 amps, 100 volts and 20 amps, 50 volts powering the same thing? I ask this because once I said that my charger was slow because it was only 5 volts not 10, and someone said that's no why it's because it's only .5 amps not 1 and I didn't really think much of it at the time

 

You can have that.  10 amps at 100 volts and 20 amps at 50 volts are both 1000 watts.

 

With your charger being slow, it's because your phone can only charge at 5volts(usb).  0.5 amp charger is 2.5 watts of power going into your phone.  1amp charger is 5 watts going into your phone.  Because the charging voltage stays the same, a higher amp rating, and therefore more watts of power means a faster charging phone.

 

(yes I know a phone doesn't actually charge at 5v but it takes a usb input at 5v so for this argument it's fine)