John M is correct that this is not something to lose sleep over, but I
agree with Herb that we ought to keep working at getting students to
speak and write correctly.
I don't care whether we call it voltage or oomph. I do think we need
something shorter than electric potential difference. Early on, I try
to say electric potential difference when I lecture or work with
students. After a little while I switch over to voltage, but I still
occasionally throw in EPD to remind them and/or keep them on their toes.
Alas, it does not seem to be working. They neither get the electric
potential difference nor the voltage (and probably wouldn't get oomph
either); they just get the volts.
I might be wrong about terms like voltmeter being part of the problem.
However, anytime the students are presented with terminology that
doesn't quite add up, I think it might contribute to the overall
problem.
Along these same lines, I worry that our tendency to abbreviate things
with one letter also leads to confusion. If we have an electric
potential difference of 5 volts, many scientists will write this as V =
5V. Aside from the fact that some students view this as algebraic
nonsense, it also has the problem that it ought to be delta-V. Many
people write V both for electric potential and also for electric
potential difference. If I mean electric potential difference then I
make a point of writing delta-V = 5V; but I seem pretty lonely in my
crusade to write delta's in front of variables.
These are little things, but we all know we can integrate a lot of
little confusion into a big confusion.
Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D.
Professor of Chemistry and Physics
Bluffton College
Bluffton, OH 45817
(419)-358-3270
edmiston@bluffton.edu