This article is about the law related to electricity. For other uses, see Ohm's acoustic law.

V, I, and R, the parameters of Ohm's law

Part of a series of articles about

Electromagnetism

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 Magnetism

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 Alternating current
 Capacitance
 Direct current
 Electric current
 Electrolysis
 Current density
 Joule heating
 Electromotive force
 Impedance
 Inductance
  Ohm's law
 Parallel circuit
 Resistance
 Resonant cavities
 Series circuit
 Voltage
 Waveguides

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 v
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Ohm's law states that the current through a conductor between two points is

directly proportional to the voltage across the two points. Introducing the constant of
proportionality, the resistance,[1] one arrives at the usual mathematical equation that
describes this relationship:[2]
where I is the current through the conductor in units of amperes, V is the voltage
measured across the conductor in units of volts, and R is the resistance of the conductor
in units of ohms. More specifically, Ohm's law states that the R in this relation is
constant, independent of the current.[3] Ohm's law is an empirical relation which
accurately describes the conductivity of the vast majority of electrically conductive
materials over many orders of magnitude of current. However some materials do not
obey Ohm's law, these are called non-ohmic.
The law was named after the German physicist Georg Ohm, who, in a treatise published
in 1827, described measurements of applied voltage and current through simple
electrical circuits containing various lengths of wire. Ohm explained his experimental
results by a slightly more complex equation than the modern form above
(see § History below).
In physics, the term Ohm's law is also used to refer to various generalizations of the law;
for example the vector form of the law used in electromagnetics and material science:
where J is the current density at a given location in a resistive material, E is the
electric field at that location, and σ (sigma) is a material-dependent parameter called
the conductivity. This reformulation of Ohm's law is due to Gustav Kirchhoff.[4]

Although Ohms Law does not apply only to resistors - as we shall see later - it seems logical to
include it now, since it will provide a good reference point to the resistor details given above.

WHAT IS OHMS LAW ? :

Using the diagram on the left, Ohms Law is defined as; "Provided that the
temperature remains constant, the ratio of potential difference (p.d.)
across the ends of a conductor (R) to the current (I) flowing in that
conductor will also be constant". Here endeth the sermon !
From this, we conclude that; Current equals Voltage divided by Resistance (I=V/R), Resistance
equals Voltage divided by Current (R=V/I), and Voltage equals Current times Resistance (V=IR).
The important factor here is the temperature. If calculations based on Ohms law are to produce
accurate results this must remain constant. In the 'real' world it hardly ever does, and from a
beginners point of view, you need not concern yourself with it any further, since the circuits you are
likely to encounter at the moment - and about 95% of all those you will come across in the future -
will work perfectly ok whether they're hot or cold!

OHMS LAW THE SIMPLE WAY:

Figure 1 on the left shows the most common Ohms law triangle.
Starting from any section of the triangle, this can be read in any
direction you like - clockwise, anti-clockwise, top to bottom or bottom
to top - and it will always provide you with the calculation you require.

If you treat the (slightly diagonal) horizontal lines as divide signs and the short vertical line as a
multiply sign, and always start your calculation with whatever quantity you're looking for, ie; "V=",
"I=" or "R=" you will have all possible formulae based on this particular Ohms law. That is; V=IxR,
I=V/R, R=V/I. It should be apparent that the formula works the other way too, that is; IxR=V,
RxI=V, V/I=R and V/R=I.

These explanations might seem a little complex, but it is simple to put into practice. Generally a
helpful example would be more understandable for beginners, instead of these fancy tables, so here
goes.

EXPLANATION BY EXAMPLE:
Let's say a friend asks you to fit a red warning light into the dashboard of
his/her car. Being an electronics enthusiast you decide to use a red Light
Emitting Diode (LED), because they produce reasonably pure red light, don't
give off the excessive heat of filament lamps, they're also cheap by comparison
and they look high-tech!

From a circuit diagram point of view, the arrangement would be as shown on

the left.
CURRENT LIMITING RESISTOR:
Standard LED's cannot be powered directly from 12 Volts without fitting a current limiting resistor
in series with one of the leads, but, what value do you use ? As a general rule of thumb, your average
LED requires about 15mA of current to produce an acceptable light output. Given this, we now have
two known quantities for use in our calculation - the voltage and the current. Using the Ohms law
triangle, the required resistance is calculated from the formula "R=V/I", which gives us
12/0.015=800 Ohms (see below for 'Vf'). Don't forget, current is measured in Amps.

This may, at first, seem to present a problem, since 800 Ohms is not a standard value available in the
E12 range. However, with this type of circuit the resistance is not critical, and the nearest preferred
value will suffice perfectly well, which is 820 Ohms.

DON'T FORGET ABOUT 'Vf':

All electronic components exhibit - to a greater or lesser extent - what is know as 'dropout'. This has
various abbreviations depending on the type of component to which it refers, but they generally
mean the same thing. It's actually the amount of voltage which is used up by the component in order
to function. For a standard LED this ranges between about 1.5 - 3 volts, and for our purposes we will
assume it to be 2V.
This means that, of your 12 volts from the battery, 2 volts will be used up by the LED itself, so your
Ohms law calculation should be based on 10 volts instead. The true formula should actually be; (12-
Vf)/0.015=666.66 Ohms (recurring for the maths wizards amongst you!). The closest value to this in
E12 range is 680 Ohms, so ideally this should be the value to use. As a matter of safety, when your
results end up with obscure values like this, always select the closest value higher, not the next one
down.

RESISTORS IN SERIES AND PARALLEL

It is possible to "manufacture" standard and non-standard resistor values to suit your own needs if
the required value is not to hand. This is achieved by connecting two or more of them in parallel,
series, or a combination of both. However, you need to know beforehand how they react with each
other in these configurations.

RESISTORS IN SERIES:
The figure on the left shows three resistors