Voltages

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A measure of electric potential difference, indicating how much energy an electric charge will gain from a power source
2. The term also refers to various levels of electrical energy provided for devices or systems to operate
3. Additionally, it describes the units that quantify the force necessary to drive current through a resistor in a circuit

Etymology: Voltage is a physicist's coinage rather than an old word with a dramatic past. The name comes from Alessandro Volta, the Italian physicist who in 1800 announced his voltaic pile, the first electric battery, in a letter to the Royal Society in London. Scientists began using "volt" as a unit in the 1870s and 1880s, honouring his work, and the Italian physicist's name was joined to the noun "voltage" in the same spirit as other electrical units named after people, such as the ampere, ohm and watt. The plural "voltages" is simply the countable form of the noun, used when speaking of several different potential differences, such as the different voltages supplied by a power adapter or measured across different components in a circuit. Each of these is an instance of the same quantity.