Re: Meauring Volts?

[Larry Smith <larry.smith@SNOW.EDU>]

At 3:09 PM -0500 12/6/02, Edmiston, Mike wrote:
> 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, ...

I make a point to tell students that quantities are given italic symbols
while the symbols for units are all upright non-slanted text.  So the two
V's in your equation are actually different.  Of course this is difficult
to distinguish in ASCII e-mail and on a chalk board, but just mentioning it
makes their reading of the text better.

Larry