Or, struggle session: give me your best electricity analogies

I passed my physics classes in high school from simply memorizing the formula. I never thought too deeply about electricity until now because I want to preserve the life of my electronics. The water hose somewhat makes sense to me, but I need something a bit more concrete.

  • Amps/Current: the electrons; the thing that is actually powering electronics
  • Volts/Voltage: the “speed” “pressure” of amps. I know that it’s not technically speed, but it’s measuring the movement of amps right? Can we agree for layman’s purposes that it’s the speed?
  • Watts: How much work is done, or a summary of your power situation

So, the analogy of an airport

  • The charger: Security checkpoint
  • The battery: The terminal
  • The device: the plane

Charger: checkpoint

Input: 200V 5A

  • At an urgency level of 200V (i.e. people want to rush home before weather cancels the flight), 5 customers arrive at the checkpoint waiting line at a time

Output: 100V 3A

  • The checkpoint is operating at an urgency of 100V, and they process 3 customers then send them to the terminal

Checkpoint B can screen 6 customers an urgency level of 100 (100V 6A)

Terminal: battery

Input: 100V 3A

  • The terminal can handle a level 100 urgency, and 3 passengers from the checkpoint enter
  • You can have more than 3 passengers enter the terminal at an urgency level of 100 (e.g. 100V 6A), but it may overcrowd or the planes may take off sooner
  • If the airport is advanced enough, it will always only let 3 passengers through no matter what the urgency level is
  • You can let less than 3 passengers enter the terminal at an urgency level of 100, but it will take a longer time before the terminal is full, and perhaps a longer time before the plane can take off (or maybe the plane/device keeps losing money/power because not enough passengers/amps are entering)
  • The terminal is not designed for an urgency level of over 100 because there’s not enough room or resources to handle that pressure
  • (What if you have 3V 100A?) - It’s a busy, normal day. 100 passengers are slowly moving through the airport because there’s no pressure compelling them to rush
  • The terminal has a capacity of 500wH, so 500 max passengers?

Output: 25V 2A

  • The terminal boarding area is not feeling much pressure, so they have an urgency of 25 and sending 2 customers in the plane at a time

Plane: device

Input: 25V 2A

  • The plane is not feeling much pressure, so they have an urgency of 25 and accepting 2 customers at a time

And in the context of headphones, amplifiers would be… extra employees pushing more passengers into the plane?