Question Video: Recalling How the Current through a Resistor Changes When the Potential Difference across It Halves | Nagwa Question Video: Recalling How the Current through a Resistor Changes When the Potential Difference across It Halves | Nagwa

Question Video: Recalling How the Current through a Resistor Changes When the Potential Difference across It Halves Science • Third Year of Preparatory School

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Complete the following sentence: If the potential difference across a resistor halves, the current through it _.

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Video Transcript

Complete the following sentence. If the potential difference across a resistor halves, the current through it blank.

Here, we are asked to complete the sentence by filling in the blank. The question is asking us what would happen to the current in a resistor with constant resistance if the potential difference across it was cut in half. Let’s first remember the expression we are going to be using to help us figure this out, which is Ohm’s law. Ohm’s law states, for two points in a circuit, the potential difference across the points equals the current between the points multiplied by the resistance of the object between the points. Ohm’s law can be written as an equation, where 𝑉 stands for the potential difference across the resistor, 𝐼 stands for the current in the resistor, and 𝑅 stands for the resistance of the resistor.

Because we are interested in what would happen to the current, we must make current 𝐼 the subject of the equation. We can do this by dividing both sides of the equation by the resistance. This gives us the equation current 𝐼 is equal to the potential difference 𝑉 divided by the resistance 𝑅. Since the resistor has a constant resistance, Ohm’s law is telling us that the potential difference is proportional to the current. This means that if the potential difference across the resistor is halved to one-half 𝑉, then the current must also be halved to one-half 𝐼. Therefore, the correct answer to complete this sentence is “halves.” If the potential difference across a resistor halves, the current through it halves.

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