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When describing circuits, I refer to the voltage "rise" across a
battery and the voltage "drop" across a resistor. However, in
discussions with students, I think this may be confusing them. It
makes them think that there is something traveling from the battery,
that they call voltage (and imagine as electrons), that gets "used
up" in each resistor. This leads them to several errors. For
example, it leads them to think that the last item in a line of bulbs
may not light if there is no "voltage left".
To avoid this confusion (at least until they get a better sense of
what is going on), does anyone see a problem with referring to the
voltage "sources" and "sinks", instead of "rises" and "drops"? Or is
there some other language that is clearer?