Ohms law question.

[c4757p]

(what's next? Being careful not to exceed your kilometrage per hourage?)

We 'mericans have "mileage"........ that one's hard to place its exact usage.  Sometimes it's distance per unit fuel volume, other times just distance.

[IanB]

for some strange reason English is losing the use of word tension in favor of "voltage" (what's next? Being careful not to exceed your kilometrage per hourage?), but I still see that high-tension supply and high-tension lines are alive and well

It's a long time since tension was routinely used to refer to voltage. But I recently heard "pressure" used in an archive film from years passed (as in "the electricity is delivered at a pressure of 22 000 volts"). H.T. lives on as an abbreviation long after the origin of these initials has faded into history.

You can use amperage in English as an alternative to current if you wish.

[Dave]

We 'mericans have "mileage"........ that one's hard to place its exact usage.  Sometimes it's distance per unit fuel volume, other times just distance.

Don't you usually call that "gas mileage"?

It's one thing when you have different symbols in different countries, but I had to deal with different symbols in different classes, now that was something. Our physics prof in high school insisted on using 'e' for electric charge, while our EE prof demanded we used 'Q', as it should be. Pretty freaking stupid and somewhat confusing at first, but you do get used to it eventually.

[c4757p]

Yes, we do call it "gas mileage", but we also like to abbreviate everything to a ridiculous extent, and then insist that the abbreviations are "correct". Therefore there are a lot of people who call it "mileage".

[alm]

It's one thing when you have different symbols in different countries, but I had to deal with different symbols in different classes, now that was something. Our physics prof in high school insisted on using 'e' for electric charge, while our EE prof demanded we used 'Q', as it should be. Pretty freaking stupid and somewhat confusing at first, but you do get used to it eventually.

This is good preparation for the real world, where as shown in this thread multiple, conflicting symbols are used for the same quantity. You're often expected to figure out from context what the symbol refers to.

[vk6zgo]

When I first stared out in Electronics,all the texts,whether from Australia,The UK,or USA used I=E/R
As English speakers we didn't use European texts.

Later on,there was a gradual change to  I=V/R.
I think it was mainly to prevent confusion,as E referred to "Electromotive Force",which had gone out of fashion.

In English,& perhaps other languages there has been a confusion between "V" & "U"over many years.
Old inscriptions often use "V" where modern usage requires "U".
A classic is the letter  "W"(" double U"),which is actually written as a "double V".

I always assumed that European use of "U" for voltage came from this,so I just make the mental adjustment & it doesn't bother me.

[AndyC_772]

The only time I recall seeing E used for EMF was at school, in the context of a battery with internal resistance - modelled as an ideal voltage source in series with a resistor. The EMF of the battery was defined as the potential difference across the voltage source, as distinct from the voltage which would ever actually be measured in a real circuit where current is being drawn.

I think in that instance it was more important to emphasize to students that there were two different quantities which needed to be considered. Giving them different symbols was a way to help get across the point that there was an unknown quantity ('E') which couldn't be directly measured in a real circuit, and the symbol V was used for potentials that could actually be measured with a meter.

Since then, it's always been V.

[ivaylo]

Yup, never seen V=IR until I came to the states. U is voltage, E is potential and have always been at least in four Euro languages I've seen electronics books and magazines in.

Time to bring up versus I guess...

[con-f-use]

Euro resistance symbol is easier to draw and looks more like a resistor (both through hole and smd). The other one could be confused with an inductor. Fairly easy to say what's better  Now it's time for a flame war! 

[vk6zgo]

Euro resistance symbol is easier to draw and looks more like a resistor (both through hole and smd). The other one could be confused with an inductor.* Fairly easy to say what's better  Now it's time for a flame war! 

*Only by Europeans!

[olsenn]

U is sometimes used to represent "potential" energy. Perhaps they are broading it to be voltage potential as well.

[c4757p]

I remember seeing a schematic which used both resistor symbols: the zigzag symbol for power resistors (I assume because it looks like a wirewound?). Can't remember where I saw it, though.

[filip_cro]

In Croatia I use:

U - voltage
I - current
R - resistance
E - EMF
? (phi) - potential
? (epsilon) - electrical field
u - signal voltage (exempje voltage going into amplifier)
i - signal current

[tazelikechickn]

As an Automotive lecturer in Australia, I have been using the formula

V = A x ?

as this is what is shown on mulitmeters and is easily understood by mechanics who use these symbols everyday.

Not saying that is the correct way - just different and easier to identify.

The picture is a poster I have made for students in class.

Hope this helps

[amyk]

But I recently heard "pressure" used in an archive film from years passed (as in "the electricity is delivered at a pressure of 22 000 volts"). H.T. lives on as an abbreviation long after the origin of these initials has faded into history.

You'll also see "pressure" often in Chinese products' mistranslations, as apparently their character for "voltage" also means "pressure".

[tmammela]

Yup, never seen V=IR until I came to the states. U is voltage, E is potential and have always been at least in four Euro languages I've seen electronics books and magazines in.

I'm having hard time when voltage is V, because here we have a word "puimuri" which is used to remember P = UI and U=RI. M is for mellan which is Swedish for "in between" and because they are our neighbors we know some of that language. Puimuri is Finnish for "harvester".

Time to bring up versus I guess...

Here we use the left one but I don't like it, fuse looks almost the same.

[ablacon64]

In Brazil we use V = IR but most books I've seen use E = IR. Don't remember seeing "U".

[smashedProton]

V is velocity not emf...

[AndrejaKo]

Here we use v for velocity.

Anyway, about the resistors: Both type of resistors are used in Serbia, but it seems that there's some sort of holy war going on between various "expert" groups. Some people here argue that it's better to use american symbol for pure resistance and the IEC for complex impedance, non-ideal resistors and so on, while others claim that resistor is a resistor and needs to have only one symbol, which is the box. I've also seen different variations of the IEC resistor symbol with various types of black triangles covering one half of the box. Apparently, they used to mean different types of resistors, but I was unable to find any explanation which type of resistor was associated with which symbol.

Also I've lost the count of how many times I drew a fuse when I was intending to draw a resistor.

[JackOfVA]

Received my electrical engineering undergrad degree in 1968 (from a university in the USA) and it was E=IR, E standing for electromotive force.