What is the work done to move a unit charge from one point to another in an electric circuit carrying some current, between those two points?
- A.Pressure distance
- B.Potential difference
- C.Potential distance
- D.Pressure difference
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is B, potential difference. The potential difference between two points in a circuit is defined as the work done in moving a unit positive charge from one point to the other. From this definition comes the unit: one volt is one joule of work per coulomb of charge, and the quantity is measured with a voltmeter connected in parallel across the two points.
Option A, pressure distance, is not a physical quantity at all, and pressure belongs to mechanics rather than to circuits. Option C, potential distance, is likewise not a defined term; the word potential appears only to make the option look plausible. Option D, pressure difference, is a real quantity but belongs to fluids, where it drives the flow of a liquid or a gas; it is sometimes used only as an analogy for voltage while teaching, never as the name of the electrical quantity. The definition asked for is that of potential difference.
Read the full article: Electricity and Magnetism: Laws, Rules and PYQs
Practice Questions
View allIf the potential difference across the ends of a conductor is halved, what happens to the current flowing through it?
- A.It gets increased
- B.It gets doubled
- C.It gets decreased
- D.It gets halved
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By Ohm's law, at a constant temperature the current through a conductor is directly proportional to the potential difference across its ends, since the current equals the potential difference divided by the resistance.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following is NOT based on the heating effect of current?
- A.Electric heater
- B.Electric bulb (with filament)
- C.Electric iron
- D.Microwave
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A microwave oven does not cook by passing a current through a resistance. It generates microwaves in a magnetron, and these waves make the water molecules in the food rotate rapidly, so the food heats from within by dielectric heating.
Read the full explanation →A 12 V battery is connected across an unknown resistor. If a current of 2 mA is flowing through the circuit, the value of the resistance is _________ .
- A.600 ohm
- B.6 ohm
- C.6000 ohm
- D.60 ohm
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By Ohm's law the resistance equals the potential difference divided by the current. Here the current must first be converted into the base unit: two milliampere is 0.002 ampere.
Read the full explanation →Thin wires of which of the following metal is used for making the filament of electric bulbs?
- A.Tungsten
- B.Silver
- C.Nichrome
- D.Copper
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Tungsten has the highest melting point of all metals, well above three thousand degrees Celsius, so a thin tungsten wire can be heated until it glows white without melting.
Read the full explanation →The direction of the magnetic field produced around a straight current-carrying conductor is given by
- A.Fleming's left hand rule
- B.the right hand thumb rule
- C.Fleming's right hand rule
- D.Lenz's law
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Hold the conductor in your right hand with the thumb stretched along the direction of the conventional current; the way your fingers curl round the wire is the direction of the concentric magnetic field lines.
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