Abolish Ohm's Law

[ven@physics.purdue.edu (Van E. Neie)]

> This is another semantic swamp!
> I have always considered R=V / I to be the definition of resistance -
> period.
> I never refer to any statement as "Ohm's Law" (except perhaps to
> discourage its utterance).

AMEN!!!  That's what I do with my classes.  It seems to add nothing but
confusion to talk about Ohm's law, at least in intro courses.  Defining
resistance to be V/I works for purely resistive devices and allows one to
avoid any  issues of whether something is 'ohmic."  Ohm's Law and
centripetal force are both on my list of no-no's.

Van Neie

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Van E. Neie                                      ven@physics.purdue.edu
Dept of Physics                                 PH:  (765) 494-5511
Purdue University                          FAX: (765) 494-0706
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"[Those] who have an excessive faith in their theories or in their ideas
are not only poorly disposed to make discoveries, but they also make very
poor observations."

---Claude Bernard  1865