Voltz
New Member
Okay, another thing that's eluded me is how to work out the power dissipated by a wire when you know the resistivity/length/area or resistance etc...
Basically, if I wanted to build a heating element and I knew the specifications of a wire how do I work out how much power will be dissipated with a given voltage, I have no problem working out the resistance of a given length of wire R = (ρ x l)/a
But after working this out when I plug it into an ohm's law equation V²/R = W then it looks like the higher the resistance the lower the power dissipation so if I want more power dissipation I should have a very short low resistance wire? Or have I plugged the equation wrong or even used the wrong equation completely
Basically, if I wanted to build a heating element and I knew the specifications of a wire how do I work out how much power will be dissipated with a given voltage, I have no problem working out the resistance of a given length of wire R = (ρ x l)/a
But after working this out when I plug it into an ohm's law equation V²/R = W then it looks like the higher the resistance the lower the power dissipation so if I want more power dissipation I should have a very short low resistance wire? Or have I plugged the equation wrong or even used the wrong equation completely