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

Thomas Edison wanted to create an incandescent light bulb with a very high resistant material because other inventors in the past had been using low resistant materials. The cost to use high resistant materials was to expensive and as a result was forced to work with low resistant materials. To help lower the cost, Edison ran low current through thin copper wires.

According to Ohm's law "the magnitude of the electrical current flowing in a conductor was equal to the electromotive force divided by the resistance to the current" or amps(current) = volts(force) divided by resistance(ohms). Even though it gave off satisfactory light this only lasted for about an hour or so.

Since Edison had decided to run a low current of 1-2 amps through his, money saving, thin copper wire, he was going to have to work out a high resistance light bulb of 200 ohms operating of a lower voltage(110 volts).

2)Why Edison made "the internal resistence much smaller than the external load rather than having equal internal and external resistence" in his generators (Jonnes 62).

According to Jonnes, by making "the internal resistence much smaller than the external load rather than having equal internal and external resistence" in Edison's generators, Edison had the advantage and capability of lighting many light bulbs at once. This change made his generators far superior and more efficient than any existing electrical generators during his time.