On Sun, 16 Jun 1996, Glen Eldridge wrote:
> Mark et al., From the depths of my rusty store of electrical formulae,
> I seem to remember that watts divided by volts equals amps. Given that
> is so, if the voltage drops for a given wattage of lamp, that SHOULD
> mean that the amperage goes up. I don't know how much current that
> headlight circuit is fused for, but a drop of 4 volts in a 12 volt
> circuit means an increase of 50% in the amperage flowing through it.
> Somewhere, something has got to give; let's hope it doesn't require a
> fire extinguisher! :-)
> Glen Eldridge
Glen,
Uh, so when your battery is dead as a doornail, the infinite current
should burn up all the wires in the car?
You've got me mumbling to myself.
Formulae aside, the real reason all those old Lucas lamps are still
working is that british amperes are only half the size of american
amperes, as I explained last week. It follows as the night the day that
the filaments are far less stressed.
Ray Gibbons Dept. of Molecular Physiology & Biophysics
Univ. of Vermont College of Medicine, Burlington, VT
gibbons@northpole.med.uvm.edu (802) 656-8910
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