basic questions

Thread Starter

quicksilver

Joined Mar 6, 2008
19
I searched in both the on-line text book and the forum itself before asking; the questions are simple but they are contextual questions and that's why I may have had some problem finding answers.

1.) How is current increased within a circuit? What would some differing examples be of methods with a 9v battery @ 500ma and increasing that amperage to several amps?

2.) What are some of the "newer"* techniques to increase current AND voltage within a circuit?

* This deals with improvements in engineering and components: what is available today that had NOT been around in the 1960s-70's.
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Thank you very much for any help (or direction to find same).
 

beenthere

Joined Apr 20, 2004
15,819
1. Takes magic. A 9 volt "transistor" battery is not rated for current above 15 ma. Seriously, Ohm's law rules in electronics. I (current) = E (voltage) / R (resistance). The only way to increase current in a circuit is to either increase the voltage or decrease the resistance.

2. See above - components don't change Ohm's law.

This probably won't answer your question very satisfactorily - if you can expand on the question, perhaps we can do better.
 

Thread Starter

quicksilver

Joined Mar 6, 2008
19
The 9v portion is the problem. But let me say that there are newer very small arc welders that take household current and jump that up to a substantial amount. Everyone has seen the large welders of past decades that were very large indeed. There are now newer models that fix inside a shoe box yet deliver as much or more current than the older ones with LESS line in current/voltage. The older one used 240; the newer one's use common 120 household line.

Therefore I was lead to believe that there are methods/materials that can increase current that are either more efficient or more creative than previous methods. Could it be that [in terms of increasing current in a circuit] increase the voltage drastically and at the same time decrease the resistance? Is there a method to drastically decrease resistance that is much newer technologically?

Perhaps this is the information that they got from Area 51 ? These items ARE getting smaller and smaller...how do they do it?
 

recca02

Joined Apr 2, 2007
1,212
The 9v portion is the problem. But let me say that there are newer very small arc welders that take household current and jump that up to a substantial amount. Everyone has seen the large welders of past decades that were very large indeed. There are now newer models that fix inside a shoe box yet deliver as much or more current than the older ones with LESS line in current/voltage. The older one used 240; the newer one's use common 120 household line.
I think you are talking about transformers(not the movie) here.
Anyways Ohm's aw still holds good....for larger current either increase voltage or decrease resistance.

The difference between old and new method of circuit analysis might be that they can now done with softwares.
 

thingmaker3

Joined May 16, 2005
5,083
The 9v portion is the problem. But let me say that there are newer very small arc welders that take household current and jump that up to a substantial amount. Everyone has seen the large welders of past decades that were very large indeed. There are now newer models that fix inside a shoe box yet deliver as much or more current than the older ones with LESS line in current/voltage. The older one used 240; the newer one's use common 120 household line.

Therefore I was lead to believe that there are methods/materials that can increase current that are either more efficient or more creative than previous methods. Could it be that [in terms of increasing current in a circuit] increase the voltage drastically and at the same time decrease the resistance? Is there a method to drastically decrease resistance that is much newer technologically?

Perhaps this is the information that they got from Area 51 ? These items ARE getting smaller and smaller...how do they do it?
I have one of the small arc welders. Input is 110-120 VAC at not more than 20Amps. Maximum output is a smidge less than 2Kwatts. Not even the godlike space aliens are able to re-write Ohms Law or circumvent thermodynamics.

We (humans that is) can make technology better and smaller because we continue to learn more and more about how the universe works. We've been at it for ten thousand years, and we've become quite good. We don't need no stinking space aliens to hold our hand or pass out treats. Never have. Never will.
 
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