GBC
Electrical

Volt (V)

Modern equivalent

1 Joule per Coulomb

Tracks electric potential pressure pushing current through an electrical circuit.

Named after Alessandro Volta, the volt quantifies the electrical driving force (electromotive force) that causes electric charges to flow through a conductor. Volta built the first true chemical battery in 1799 from a stack of alternating zinc and copper discs separated by cloth soaked in saltwater, producing for the first time a steady and sustained current rather than the fleeting discharges of static electricity that had occupied earlier experimenters.

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