Ohm

The ohm, abbreviated Ω, is the SI unit of electrical resistance. It is the resistance which will allow a current of one ampere across a potential drop of one volt.

The ohm is named for Georg Ohm (1789 - 1854), an early investigator of electricity, who determined the relation between current, potential, and resistance, now called Ohm's Law.

The ohm is a derived unit in the SI, equal to 1 V/A; or in terms of SI basic units: Ω = m²·kg·s⁻³·A⁻².

Other definitions

The "international ohm" was defined in 1893 (at the International Electrical Conference) as the resistance of a column of mercury of constant cross section at the temperature of melting ice, 106.3 centimeters long and with a mass of 14.4521 grams (which gave a cross-section of 1 square millimeter).

In 1990, the CIPM recommended that a conventional value of 25812.807 Ω be used for the von Klitzing constant $\scriptstyle h/e^{2}$ (where h is Planck's constant and e is the elementary charge), which makes calibration easy using the quantum Hall effect. This is technically not a redefinition, but allows for increased precision in measurement.

Sources

• Ohm. Sizes.com (2005-02-14). Retrieved on 2007-06-23.
• International ohm. Sizes.com (2007-06-03). Retrieved on 2007-06-23.