Re: OT: volt and current (ALSA sound recording frustration)
On Fri, Nov 28, 2008 at 12:19:13PM -0900, Ken Irving wrote:
> On Fri, Nov 28, 2008 at 01:10:32PM -0600, lee wrote:
> > On Fri, Nov 28, 2008 at 06:59:06PM +0000, Tzafrir Cohen wrote:
> >
> > > A voltmeter has two connectors and shows the potential differences
> > > between them.
> > >
> > > This is unlike an Ampermeter that shows the current flowing through it.
> >
> > If you have a multimeter that can measure voltage or current, both
> > modes are basically the same. The difference is only in where most of
> > the current flows.
>
> They're the same internally in that even in current mode the meter is
> measuring a voltage (the voltage drop between the meter's terminals,
> a known but very small-valued resistor), but they're quite different,
> basically.
They are still basically the same: What voltage or how much current is
flowing through the electro magnet that moves the handle is irrelevant
other than that it takes a given amount of energy to move the
handle. That amount of energy can (in theory) be made up from any
combination of voltage and current.
> > Is it even possible to measure a mere potential?
>
> Back to a water analogy, consider you're holding a bucket of water.
> The height of the surface of the water above the floor represents its
> potential for doing work, its energy.
Still you are not measuring a potential but the relative height of the
surface of the water. I. e., you measure/observe something of which
you think that it represents a potential, like in the example with
deflected particles and shape shifting crystals, but not the potential
itself.
--
"Don't let them, daddy. Don't let the stars run down."
http://adin.dyndns.org/adin/TheLastQ.htm
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