Electric current with respect to ground. Ohm's law states that the current through a conductor between two points is directly proportional to the potential difference across the two points. Introducing the constant of proportionality, the resistance, one arrives at the usual mathematical equation that describes this relationship: where "I" is the current through the conductor in units of amperes, "V" is the potential difference 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. In
Introduction to the metric system The result is that there are a variety of different named units available to measure the same quantity (for example 10 millimetres = 1 centimetre, 100 centimetres = 1 metre, 1000 metres = 1 kilometre). Each unit and each prefix has a standard symbol (not abbreviation) associated with it. In 1861, during discussions about standardising electrical units of measure, Charles Bright and Latimer Clark proposed that these units be named, not in relation to what they are used for, or common objects, but after eminent scientists; with the electrical units of resistance, potential difference and capacitance being named the ohm,