Electricity & Circuits
Lesson 2 of 3 8 min +50 XP

Ohm's Law

Voltage, current, and resistance.

What you'll learn

  • Define voltage, current, and resistance
  • Apply V = IR
  • Predict how a circuit responds to changes
Pressure, flow, and the pinch

Voltage is the pressure pushing electricity, current is how much flows, and resistance is a pinch in the wire slowing it. Ohm's law ties the three together: more pressure or less pinch means more flow.

The three quantities of a circuit

Voltage (V, in volts) is the push — the energy per charge that a battery provides. Current (I, in amps) is the flow. Resistance (R, in ohms) is how much the material fights the flow. Ohm's law ties them together in one clean relationship: V = I × R.

Simulation · Ohm's law: V = IR
💡
bulb
I = V / R = 3.00 A

More voltage pushes more current; more resistance holds it back. The bulb glows with the current.

Raise the voltage and the current (and the bulb's glow) grows; raise the resistance and the current falls. That is V = IR in action.

A water analogy

Think of voltage as water pressure, current as the flow rate, and resistance as a narrow pipe. More pressure pushes more water; a narrower pipe lets less through. The math is the same.

Lab · Predict the current
  1. A 9-volt battery connects to a 3-ohm resistor. Use V = IR to predict the current.
  2. Check with the simulation: set voltage to 9 and resistance to 3. Does the reading match your I = 9/3 = 3 A?
  3. Now double the resistance to 6 ohms. Predict the new current, then verify.
  4. Write a sentence: when resistance doubles (voltage fixed), current does what?

What you should see: You used Ohm's law to predict a current and confirmed that doubling resistance halves the current.

Knowledge Check

+15 XP / correct

1. A 12 V battery drives a 4 Ω resistor. The current is…

2. If you keep voltage fixed and increase resistance, the current…