@kat @starkatt @LexYeen yes, power is proportional to voltage squared (in a resistive medium)
-F

@kat @starkatt @LexYeen also i think this thread keeps breaking because this s0 person is on an instance that isn't on awoo's allow list, sorry about that
-F

@starkatt @s0 @Felthry @LexYeen like if you lower voltage and resistance together it'd be like going from a pressure washer with a compressor to a garden hose or something

they're both gonna fill up a bucket at the same rate so the amperage is the same

and then... i'm not sure what wattage is equivalent to here, but i guess it's different for each?? or the same???

@kat @starkatt @LexYeen wattage is power, it's the amount of heat being generated in the resistor
-F

@Felthry @starkatt @LexYeen alright, so how can you make different amounts of heat with different volumes of electricity? like isn't it always going to take the same amperage to do the same thing?? and amperage is already a product of voltage

what's the reason that the same amps/amount of electricity can do different amounts of work depending what voltage was used to create that amperage in the first place

@kat @starkatt @LexYeen this is beyond my current ability to explain, we're very near going to bed. katt might be able to explain it? or know of a resource that does, she's good at knowing of resources for things
-F

@kat @s0 @Felthry @LexYeen So like,

You can get a given power in two ways: high voltage and low amperage, or high amperage and low voltage.

the first is like a waterjet cutter. It'd take ages to fill a swimming pool but it's at wicked high pressure.

the second is like a slow-moving river. The sheer volume of flowing water means there's a ton of energy there, but it's being driven by a nearly-imperceptible contour of the landscape.

@kat @s0 @Felthry @LexYeen resistance is like -- for the cutter all the water has to go through this tiny orifice, but for the river there's nearly nothing in the way.

@kat @s0 @Felthry @LexYeen you could conceivably have an entire river per second worth of water being moved at the pressure of a waterjet cutter, but the driving pump would need to be preposterous.

@starkatt @s0 @Felthry @LexYeen so like one's high voltage and high resistance, one's low voltage and low resistance

it's the same amount of water we'll say, it's a very tiny river, so the same amperage, so they'd fill a bucket at the same rate

so does wattage measure something other than just volume?? i guess they'd both output the same volume but one's harder to plug up than the other

@kat @s0 @Felthry @LexYeen the waterjet cutter is high voltage, high resistance, low current. X power

The river is low voltage, low resistance, high current. Also X power.

@kat @s0 @Felthry @LexYeen (the same "X" for each.)

@starkatt @s0 @Felthry @LexYeen i'm not... sure how power is measured here, i guess

i kinda tried to figure it out by making them the same current but i'm not sure what wattage would actually measure

@kat @starkatt @LexYeen power is just voltage times current
-F

@Felthry @starkatt @LexYeen that's... not what i meant

i think i'm just too stupid for this, sorry

@kat @starkatt @LexYeen no i'm just too tired to understand people, i'm going to go to bed now i think
-F

@kat @Felthry @LexYeen If there's lack of clarity, the problem is almost certainly a combination of asynchronous text communication, not having shared paper or a whiteboard to draw on, and my not being any kind of experienced instructor.

I am a colossal anxious dumbass who recently turned on the rice cooker without any rice in it.

@kat @Felthry @LexYeen That said, if you feel overwhelmed I'm happy to take a step back and either chat about this more later, or let the theory drop and come back to your practical use-case :)

@kat @Felthry @LexYeen it doesn't help that the water metaphor is kind of not-great but it's the best anyone has.

@starkatt @Felthry @LexYeen i just feel like i was really close to figuring it out there and then nope

@kat @Felthry @LexYeen I do think you were pretty close!

Part of the disconnect here too is likely that "power" has both an everyday meaning and a specific technical one, which makes the concepts a lot muddier.