Electrical Circuit
Electricity and Magnetism

Voltage and compound quantities

Teaching Guidance for 11-14 Supporting Physics Teaching

Use terms interchangeably

As these new ideas about voltage are first introduced, it is helpful if sometimes you refer to volt and sometimes joule per coulomb, or volt and sometimes watt per ampere. By using the terms interchangeably in this way, the underlying meaning of voltage is continually made explicit:

Teacher: OK, so the reading on the voltmeter is 1.4 volt, it's 1.4 joule / coulomb.

Teacher: OK, so the reading on the voltmeter is 1.4 volt, it's 1.4 watt / ampere.

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