Solving for the Values of Amperage and Wattage through a Meter
When we study electricity and magnetism, we will encounter the formula in computing for the electric current. This formula is known as the Ohm's law. This law states that there is a direct proportion between the electric current and the electrical pressure. It also states that there is an indirect proportion with regards to the electric current and the circuit resistance. The simplified explanation for this formula is that amperage is equal to volts divided by ohms.
Though the ohm's law, we have a formula that we can use to compute for the amperage and wattage of a device by using a meter. The meter that we will use for our computation is the multimeter.
The first step in this procedure is to turn off the power supply of the device. Next step is to measure the resistance of the device through the multimeter's probes. We will do this by adjusting the multimeter to the resistance setting.
Now you will place the tip of the multimeters negative probe to one of the device's terminal and put the positive probe of the multimeter to the opposite terminal. The multimeter will then have some readout. This readout is the value of the resistance expressed in ohms.
Next step is to change the multimeters setting to the voltage setting. Afterwards you have to figure out what is the power source of the device. If it is powered by solar cell, dynamo, battery, solar panel, or transformer, you have to set the voltage to DC or direct current. If the device is powered by an electrical outlet or three phase generator, you have to set the voltage to AC or alternating current.
Before proceeding, we should turn on the device's power supply. Then we will use the negative probe of the multimeter to touch the negative terminal of the power supply and the positive probe to touch the positive terminal of the device's power supply. We will then wait for the multimeter's read out. This read out is the electrical pressure in terms of volts.
Now we will divide the value of the voltage by the value of the appliance resistance and the resulting quotient will be the amperage, or the value which the device consumes.
To compute for the value of the wattage, we will just multiply the amount of the amperage to the value of the voltage. The resulting product of these values is the wattage which is the energy requirement of the device. That is how we compute for the values of amperage and wattage by using a meter. You can now use this information for future reference.
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