Storytelling the Current Issues

Of Voltage, Current and Power

I have the Charge
I have the Power and Energy
Information is flowing and Current

My older one was doing some soldering lessons at school and asking me what was volts, power and current all about? I was trying to recollect from my distant lanes of high school lessons and spin a story..

Imagine Yosemite river sitting on top of a hillock.. It has potential energy sitting in it before it can convert to kinetic energy. A battery too has energy sitting in it.

What is voltage?

And imagine Yosemite waters dropping from a height.. The difference in height causes the flow.. The difference in voltage causes electrons to flow when both the ends of the battery is connected by a wire. The voltage can be imagined to be the height of the fall.

And Niagara is such a wide fall compared to Yosemite.. The current can be imagined to the width of the fall.

What is Resistance?

If the waters were to trickle over the boulders and rocks, there is resistance to its movement. And there is splashing, small whirl pools, and sounds effects.

If the wire had a series of lights in its path, there is resistance in the flow.. And there is heating and lighting effects in a bulb.. there is motion if there was a motor.

What is Power?

If the river was wider and falls from a greater height, it would contain more volume of water per scond. If you can do 40 crunches per minute, you would be more powerful. If the mixer jar at home was 700 watts, it would be more powerful. If you use a 30 watts charger vs 20 watts charger, 30 watts charger is more powerful.

What is Energy?

You do 40 crunches for 2 minutes and you get hungry.. You do for 5 minutes and you get more hungry.. You use the mixer jar for more time, your current bill will be more. Energy depends on power and time.

Looks like my son got a whiff of it. “When the flow of water is huge, it can cause flooding in the rivers. A fuse is used to protect from such disasters, when the flow of current is high.”

Few weeks later he came back.. “I learnt about Cellular osmosis and diffusion which happens due to the difference in concentration of fluids. That sounds like Voltage difference.. And the surface area of the cell akin to Current flow”