Ohm's law Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
Ohm's law states that an Ohmic conductor has electric current proportional to its applied electric potential difference, with constant electrical resistance under fixed material conditions:
Here is the terminal electric potential difference, and positive enters at and exits at . This sign convention makes the electrical power absorbed. The straight-line relation through the origin lets one constant predict the response at many applied electric potential differences. Merely defining at one nonzero operating point does not establish Ohm's law: a component may have a ratio that varies with applied electric potential difference. Material and temperature must be specified and held fixed; many components have a nonlinear response. [ref].
For the ideal resistor model at electric potential difference ,
This power is converted to internal energy by Joule heating; a watt is a joule per second. If the model holds for time , the transferred energy is . Doubling electric potential difference doubles electric current and quadruples power for the same fixed . The model keeps material temperature fixed even while calculating Joule heating; appreciable changes in temperature may require a changing electrical resistance. [ref].
Figure 1. . The ideal model holds fixed. At , the marked values are and . Source. Details.
In 1827, Georg Ohm published his mathematical account of electrical transport in Die galvanische Kette, mathematisch bearbeitet. On printed page 36, his relation expresses electric current in terms of total driving tension and a reduced length incorporating electrical conductivity and geometry. This is historical notation: his is not the wire cross-sectional area used here, and his is not simply the wire's physical length. The striking idea is that material response and geometry can be combined into one quantity governing an electrical circuit. [ref].