POTENTIAL DIFFERENCE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does potential difference mean? 

• POTENTIAL DIFFERENCE (noun)
  The noun POTENTIAL DIFFERENCE has 1 sense:

1. the difference in electrical charge between two points in a circuit expressed in volts

  Familiarity information: POTENTIAL DIFFERENCE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• POTENTIAL DIFFERENCE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The difference in electrical charge between two points in a circuit expressed in volts

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural phenomena

Synonyms:

electric potential; potential; potential difference; potential drop; voltage

Hypernyms ("potential difference" is a kind of...):

electrical phenomenon (a physical phenomenon involving electricity)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "potential difference"):

evoked potential (the electrical response of the central nervous system produced by an external stimulus)

resting potential (the potential difference between the two sides of the membrane of a nerve cell when the cell is not conducting an impulse)

 Context examples 

Previous studies have shown that tea consumption reduces estrogen levels which highlights a potential difference between the biological response to tea in men and women.

(Tea Consumption: Epigenetic Changes in Women, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

The electrical potential difference across a plasma membrane.

(Membrane Potential, NCI Thesaurus)

Scientists have explored hypotheses including potential differences in how children's lungs and airways develop when they are overweight, and inflammatory changes in the body due to obesity.

(Obesity May Be to Blame for Quarter of Asthma Cases in Children, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

A unit of electrical resistance equal to the resistance between two points on a conductor when a potential difference of one volt between them produces a current of one ampere.

(Ohm, NCI Thesaurus)

A unit of energy defined as the kinetic energy acquired by an electron in passing through a potential difference of one volt in a vacuum.

(Electronvolt, NCI Thesaurus)

If it is the current which changes, then the induced field will generate a potential difference within the coil: if the inductance is one henry a current change of one ampere per second generates a potential difference of one volt.

(Henry, NCI Thesaurus)

A SI unit of capacitance equal to the capacitance of a capacitor having an equal and opposite charge of one coulomb on each plate and a potential difference of one volt between the plates.

(Farad, NCI Thesaurus)