Ohm's Law

How Ohm's Law shaped Edison's design for the light bulb and associated systems? (Jonnes 59-60)

Edison wanted to create an incandescent light bulb with a high resistance filament. This was leaning away from what other scientists were working on at the time. The problem Edison found with a high resistance filament, was that it would cost corporations too much money to produce, so he had to change his production to a path of low resistance. To keep costs low, Edison finalized his invention with running a low current through a very thin copper wire.

Edison was aware of Ohms law which stated that the potential differnece, also known as voltage, across a conductor has a proportional constant with a current running through it.

Ohm's Law

Voltage(V) = Current (I) * Resistance (R)
Electric current is measured in ampheres. Voltage is measured in volts. Resistance is measured in ohms.

According to Jill Hones, Edison made a dececision to run a low current (I) being between one and two amps. Because of this he had to use a high resistance light bulb of 220 ohms with a low voltage around 110 volts. This doesn't add up correctly to make the equation work because 110 does not equal 220 * 1. Because this equation does not add up, Jones may have gotten her facts up. Or with this primitive lightbulb the resistance may not have all been caught by the current.




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Latest page update: made by gayers , Sep 20 2007, 6:09 PM EDT (about this update About This Update gayers Edited by gayers


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