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
Electricity linear: while they may temporarily store energy, they contain no sources of it, and exhibit linear responses to stimuli. The resistor is perhaps the simplest of passive circuit elements: as its name suggests, it resists the current through it, dissipating its energy as heat. The resistance is a consequence of the motion of charge through a conductor: in metals, for example, resistance is primarily due to collisions between electrons and ions. Ohm's law is a basic law of circuit theory, stating that the current passing through a resistance is directly proportional to the potential difference across it. The resistance of