Question

an 18 ohm resistor and a 6 ohm resistor are connected in parallel to a battery, and the current in the 18 ohm resistor is found to be .45 amps. find the potential difference across the battery

Answer 1

First, we have to note that since the resistors are connected in parallel. This means that the voltage drop across each of them is the same.

Knowing this, we can use the rest of the information to find that voltage drop. We have .45 amps flowing through the 18 ohm resistor. We can use Ohm's law to find the voltage drop across this resistor.

V = I R

Where V is the voltage drop, I is the current, and R is the resistance.

Since the voltage drop is the same for both resistors, this will also be the voltage difference across the battery.