What provides the potential difference needed to move charges in a circuit?

What provides the potential difference needed to move charges in a circuit?

• A. Switches
• B. Resistors
• C. Cells and batteries
• D. Diodes

Answer: (C)

Charges in a circuit are driven when there is a potential difference between two points, and that push comes from energy sources. Cells and batteries convert chemical energy into electrical energy, creating a higher electric potential at one terminal and a lower potential at the other. This difference moves charges through the circuit, producing current. Other components don’t supply this drive. A switch just opens or closes the path; it doesn’t add energy. A resistor uses the available voltage to produce current and drops part of the voltage according to I = V/R, but it doesn’t generate the push. A diode controls the direction of current when forward-biased, but again it doesn’t provide the energy it merely shapes flow once a voltage exists. So the device that provides the potential difference needed to move charges is the cell or battery.

Charges in a circuit are driven when there is a potential difference between two points, and that push comes from energy sources. Cells and batteries convert chemical energy into electrical energy, creating a higher electric potential at one terminal and a lower potential at the other. This difference moves charges through the circuit, producing current.

Other components don’t supply this drive. A switch just opens or closes the path; it doesn’t add energy. A resistor uses the available voltage to produce current and drops part of the voltage according to I = V/R, but it doesn’t generate the push. A diode controls the direction of current when forward-biased, but again it doesn’t provide the energy it merely shapes flow once a voltage exists.

So the device that provides the potential difference needed to move charges is the cell or battery.