From the course: Electronics Foundations: Fundamentals

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Voltage

Voltage

From the course: Electronics Foundations: Fundamentals

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Voltage

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- When a bunch of electrons congregate in one place, their combined charges build up to a certain level of electric potential energy in that object. For example, when I rub this rubber balloon on my wool scarf, it causes a bunch of the electrons from the scarf to jump over on the balloon. Now the balloon is negatively charged because it has a surplus of negatively charged electrons and the scarf is positively charged because it has a shortage of electrons. This imbalance of charge means there's a difference in the electric potential energy between these two objects. And that difference produces a force which tries to move the excess electrons from the balloon back towards the scarf to equalize the charge. We use the term voltage to describe the difference in electric potential energy between two points. And we'll use that imbalance of energy to push electrons around when we create electric circuits. Voltage is measured using…

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