What is the difference between current and voltage?

Current and voltage are closely related properties of a circuit, one is caused by the other. What we refer to as voltage is in reality just a difference in charges, so, a difference in the amount of electrons between two places, say, two ends of a battery. Since electrons repel eachother, they will always try to flow to the place where there's less of them - this is current.

A good way to think of this is the "water analogy". We can think of a battery with voltage as one big water tank with high pressure and another with low pressure. When the two are connected, water will flow, with a bigger pipe corresponding to more water - just like a lower resistance corresponds to a higher current.

Answered by Brian C. Physics tutor

2403 Views

See similar Physics GCSE tutors

Related Physics GCSE answers

All answers ▸

If an object of mass 6kg was dropped from a height 35m (initially at rest), how long would it take to reach the ground under free fall?


Why is the car moving if the unbalanced force is zero?


A mobile phone falls to the floor. The glass screen shatters while the aluminium frame remains intact. Explain why this happens in terms of the properties of glass and aluminium.


State 2 factors that affect the centripetal force for a object having a circular path.


We're here to help

contact us iconContact usWhatsapp logoMessage us on Whatsapptelephone icon+44 (0) 203 773 6020
Facebook logoInstagram logoLinkedIn logo
Cookie Preferences