Shadowing Practice: Basic Ohm's Law For Electricians - Learn English Speaking with Video

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So you need to learn Ohm's Law, but you're lost or have no idea where to start.

Don't panic, you've come to the right place.

In this video, we're going to simplify Ohm's Law for electricians.

Look at a demonstration and finally put the tires to the pavement and do some real calculations using what we've learned.

We'll cover series, parallel, and combination circuits in future installments.

Hey, my name is Dustin.

I'm a licensed master electrician.

I'm also a test prep and apprenticeship instructor.

Welcome to this episode of Smarter Sparky.

So what exactly is Ohm's Law?

To answer that question we have to acknowledge a problem with electricity.

We can't see it, we can't hear it, smell it, taste it or feel it.

Sure we can see lightning, we can hear thunder, and we can get zapped by electricity, right?

But those are all the observable effects from electricity, not the electricity itself.

So the problem with electricity is that it's very difficult to observe, but we can measure it.

The things that we can measure are voltage, current, and resistance.

These are the key players in the battle that is Ohm's law.

Let's take a look at the lineup.

Voltage is kind of like pressure.

Think of low pressure like low voltage and high pressure like high voltage.

It's how much force or more technically electromotive force, which is the technical definition of voltage, is available.

Voltage is symbolized by the letter E.

I know that's kind of weird.

Why isn't it the letter V, right?

It's because we use the letter V as our units, volts.

So that leaves us needing a different letter to symbolize the unknown value.

Therefore we use the letter E from electromotive force.

So for example E equals 12 volts.

Current is similar to flow rate or gallons per hour.

A garden hose is a relatively low gallons per minute so we could think of that as low current.

Whereas a river is moving lots of gallons per minute it would be thought of as a higher current.

Current is symbolized by the letter I for similar reasons as voltage right we need that different letter.

Current is measured in amperes or amps

so we use the letter A for the units

and symbolize it with the letter I which stands for intensity so for example I equals 4 amps.

Resistance is the final contender which can be thought of as a restriction in a water line.

The harder you squeeze a hose, the more the flow is restricted.

Resistance is measured in ohms.

It's symbolized by the letter R, which stands for resistance, and the value is symbolized by the uppercase omega symbol.

For example, R equals 8 ohms.

Resistance is all around us.

All wires have a natural resistance to them.

Bad connections act like a resistance, and we have to treat them as such.

We even have a component called a resistor that is an on-purpose resistance that can be added to a circuit.

Ohm's law is what relates all three of these items together.

Ohm's law states that voltage is equal to current times resistance.

This gives us the first formula, E equals I times R.

We can rearrange this formula and derive two additional formulas giving us a total of three Ohm's law formulas.

Here's the deal.

We don't have to memorize all three.

We can just remember the first one, E equals I times R.

By filling in this triangle, we can cover up the value that we want to solve for and get the resulting formula.

For example, we can cover up E, which leaves it next to IR.

When the leftover values are next to each other, that signifies multiplication.

So E equals I times R, the formula that we started with.

If we want to solve for current, we can simply cover up I, which leaves E over R.

That gives us I equals E divided by R, the second of our formulas.

Finally, we can solve for resistance by covering up R, which leaves E over I.

That gives us R equals E divided by I.

This trick is great for remembering Ohm's Law as you only need to memorize one formula.

You can simplify the triangle just by drawing a T bracket and filling in the values.

That's exactly what I did when I sat down to take my state exam.

Draw the little letter T and fill those values in.

then you've got that Ohm's law formula right there on your scratch paper.

I'm sure you guys have all seen this little cartoon before, something very similar.

It's a great graphical representation of how Ohm's law works.

Voltage or pressure is trying to push current or amps through a wire, pipe, but resistance is restricting how much can actually move.

Let's visualize this concept using the water pipe analogy we've been using.

Here we've got an aquarium pump and a length of tubing.

This hose clamp is going to act as our resistance.

With the clamp fully open and the pump running, we have our maximum current flow.

As the clamp is tightened down, increasing resistance, we can see the current flow decreases.

We get less water or current making it through the pipe.

Let's do a few practical Ohm's Law calculations, one for each of the three Ohm's Law equations.

Consider this circuit.

How much current would flow if we had a resistance of 6 ohms and a voltage of 12 volts?

So it looks like we need to solve for I which is our placeholder for current.

So let's grab our triangle and cover up the letter I and that leaves us with E over R, meaning I equals E divided by R.

Now it's just a matter of plugging the values in.

I equals 12 volts divided by 6 ohms.

12 divided by 6 is 2 amps.

See?

Easy peasy.

What about this circuit?

Now we know the voltage and current, but we don't know the resistance.

Let's grab our triangle and cover up the letter R.

That leaves us with E over I, meaning R equals E divided by I.

Simply plug our values from the diagram into the formula, which gives us R equals 24 volts divided by 6 amps, and we get a resistance of 4 ohms.

Finally, we have this example.

Now we know the current and the resistance, but we don't know what the applied voltage is.

Grabbing our triangle, we can cover up the letter E.

Remember E is voltage which gives us I right next to R meaning E equals I times R.

Plugging in our values we get E equals 5 amps times 8 ohms

and that calculates out to E our voltage equaling 40 volts.

Hey real quick getting noticed by the YouTube algorithm is nearly impossible these days without help from viewers like you.

If you like this teaching style and find this video helpful, please take a second to like and drop a comment.

It lets the algorithmic overlords know this content's worth sharing.

All right, back to the good stuff.

We've just talked about the three items that can be measured for Ohm's Law, voltage, current, and resistance.

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There's actually a fourth item as well, and that's power.

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Power is a unit of energy.

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We symbolize it using the letter P, and it's measured in watts.

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We use W as the units, watts.

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Basically power is the rate at which electrical work is performed.

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For example, a 60 watt light bulb does less work than a 100 watt light bulb.

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It puts out less light, less heat.

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The 100 watt light bulb puts out more light and more heat.

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There is another formula that concerns Watts law.

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Watts law states that power equals current times voltage or amps times volts.

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This formula is easy to remember because the variables spell out pi.

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Check it out.

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P equals I times E.

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Everybody likes pi, so it's easy to remember.

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Let's grab one of our previous examples.

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We calculated this first example to find out that the current was 2 amps.

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We can further calculate the power of this circuit by taking the current and multiplying it by the voltage.

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So the wattage of the load is going to be P equals 2 amps times 12 volts, or 24 watts.

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Just like Ohm's law, Watt's law has three different arrangements for the same formula.

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And just like Ohm's law, Watt's law can be put into a triangle to help us remember all of these formulas.

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Just remember pi and use that to fill in the triangle.

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Maybe you've seen a wheel like this before.

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Whether you have or not, it certainly looks intimidating.

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This wheel is called Ohm's wheel or Watt's wheel and it's actually pretty simple.

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The way the wheel works is we have four quadrants.

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Each quadrant calculates out one of the four items we can calculate.

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Voltage, current, resistance, and power.

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Each of the quadrants has three formulas within it.

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So taking E, voltage for example, E equals I times R, E equals P divided by I,

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and E also equals the square root of P times R.

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And it works that way for the other quadrants as well.

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Pretty neat, huh?

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This wheel actually has Ohm's law built within it.

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Here's E equals I times R, like we just saw.

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Here's I equals E divided by R, and here's R equals E divided by I.

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Watt's law is also in there.

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Here's pi, P equals I times E, and here's the other two formulas as well.

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Here's I equals P divided by E, and E equals P divided by I.

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So that leaves us with six remaining formulas.

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Where do those come from?

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These are derived formulas.

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Basically, they're an algebraic mashup of both Ohm's law and Watt's law.

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I'll show you one real quick example of where they come from, but don't worry about knowing this.

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It's only for the curious.

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For our example, let's take this formula here.

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E equals the square root of p times r.

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It's derived by taking the two formulas, i equals p divided by e, and i equals e divided by r.

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i is equal to i, therefore p divided by e has to be equal to e divided by r.

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If we cross multiply, we get e squared equals p times r.

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Take the square root of both sides to undo the square on the e, and we get e equals the square root of p times r.

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All the other formulas are calculated using the same algebraic concept.

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It combines Ohm's law and Watt's law to eliminate one of the variables.

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Make sure to watch the upcoming Ohm's law videos on series, parallel, and combination circuits,

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and I'm going to show you a way to solve them without actually really even needing these derived formulas.

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Links will be down in the description when they become available.

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Ohm's law doesn't have to be confusing.

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In a simple circuit there's only one voltage, one current, one resistance, and one power.

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When we get into series, parallel, and combination circuits we will have multiples of each value

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but I'll show you how to handle that when we get to that point.

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Just remember we really only need to memorize two formulas.

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E equals I times R and pi.

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P equals I times E.

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Then we can use triangles to solve for anything we need.

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If you want more practice with basic Ohm's Law, I have a free worksheet and answer key you can download.

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Links are down in the description.

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That wraps up basic Ohm's Law.

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Don't forget to feed the algorithm with all the things the algorithm praise.

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Like, comment, and a subscription if I have earned it.

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See you on the next one.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 168 sentences and 1967 words to shadow. The speech runs for 11:24. The speaker talks at a natural 173 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. Only 73% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
formula noun	/ˈfɔː.mjʊ.lə/	Any mathematical rule expressed symbolically.
voltage noun	/ˈvəʊltɪd͡ʒ/	The difference in electrostatic potential between two points in space, especially between live and neutral conductors or the earth.
divide verb	/dɪˈvaɪd/	To split or separate (something) into two or more parts.
litter noun	/ˈlɪt.ɚ/	Straw, grass, and similar loose material used as bedding for people or animals.
amp verb	/ˈæmp/	To amplify.
circuit noun	/ˈsɝ.kɪt/	The act of moving or revolving around, or as in a circle or orbit; a revolution
triangle noun	/ˈtɹaɪˌæŋɡəl/	A polygon with three sides and three angles.
watt noun	/wɑt/	In the International System of Units, the derived unit of power; the power of a system in which one joule of energy is transferred per second.
leaf noun	/lif/	The usually green and flat organ that represents the most prominent feature of most vegetative plants.
solve verb	/sɒlv/	To find an answer or solution to a problem or question; to work out.
calculate verb	/ˈkælkjʊleɪt/	To determine the value of something or the solution to something by a mathematical process.
electricity noun	/ɪˌlɛkˈtɹɪsɪti/	Originally, a property of amber and certain other nonconducting substances to attract lightweight material when rubbed, or the cause of this property; now…
derive verb	/dɪˈɹaɪv/	To obtain or receive (something) from something else.
parallel adjective	/ˈpæ.ɹəˌlɛl/	Equally distant from one another at all points.
pipe noun	/ˈpaɪp/	A wind instrument consisting of a tube, often lined with holes to allow for adjustment in pitch, sounded by blowing into the tube.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
cover up verb	To conceal or disguise.
put out verb	To blind (eyes).
find out verb	To discover, as by asking or investigating.
spell out verb	To form (a word) from letters; say the letters in a word.
wrap up verb	To cover or enclose (something) by folding and securing a covering entirely around it.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	is symbolized · would be thought · is measured
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	you've come · we've learned · We've just talked
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	force, which is · contender which can

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 27 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, I'm, we've. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: algorithm /ˈælɡəɹɪðm̩/, thunder /ˈθʌndɚ/, algorithmic /ˌælɡəˈɹɪðmɪk/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: calculation /ˌkælkjuˈleɪʃn̩/, representation /ˌɹɛp.ɹə.zɛnˈteɪ.ʃən/, examination /ɪɡˌzæm.ɪˈneɪ.ʃən/, demonstration /dɛmənˈstɹeɪʃən/, subscription /səbˈskɹɪpʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: electricity /ɪˌlɛkˈtɹɪsɪti/, electrical /ɪˈlɛktɹɪkəl/, representation /ˌɹɛp.ɹə.zɛnˈteɪ.ʃən/, examination /ɪɡˌzæm.ɪˈneɪ.ʃən/, eliminate /ɪˈlɪm.ɪ.neɪt/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like formula, voltage, divide.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: Basic Ohm's Law For Electricians - Learn English Speaking with Video

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