Last Updated on 14 July 2025 by Maelle
If you work in the electrical field, you’ve probably heard of ammeters and voltmeters. Both devices measure something. Many people confuse the two and think they’re the same thing. Still others barely understand the difference. But there’s a lot to know about the differences between an ammeter and a voltmeter. What is an ammeter?
Electricity heats and lights our homes, starts our cars, powers all our electronics, and more. There may be times when we need to measure the amount of electricity flowing through the devices we use every day. An ammeter measures the electrical current in a circuit. Its name comes from the ampere, the unit of measurement for electrical current. You’ll often see the ampere abbreviated to amp.
A multimeter is a similar device. You can measure current and other things with a multimeter. The ideal resistance of an ammeter should be zero, so that all the current in a circuit can flow through it. However, in practice, every ammeter has a small resistance. The measuring capability of an ammeter depends on the amount of resistance. The letter A (A) is the symbolic representation of an ammeter in a circuit. The ammeter is connected in a series circuit so that all the electricity in the circuit can pass through the ammeter to obtain a nearly accurate reading.
There are four types of ammeters.
These are the permanent moving coil ammeter, the moving iron ammeter, the electro-dynamometric ammeter, and the rectifier ammeter.What is a voltmeter?
You can measure the voltage of an electrical circuit using a voltmeter. Using a voltmeter, you can detect the voltage or the electrical potential difference between two points. Measuring voltage is essential for the development and maintenance of advanced technologies, but it also has more everyday and practical uses.
You may not fully understand what voltage is. We all know that heat transfers from a high-temperature point to a low-temperature point.
Gas flows from a high-pressure area to a low-pressure area. Similarly, electricity must flow from one point to another. What determines the direction? It’s voltage. Electricity flows from a high-potential or high-voltage area to a low-voltage area. The voltmeter is connected in parallel to the circuit where you want to measure the voltage. The resistance of a voltmeter is greater than that of an ammeter, so current cannot flow through the meter and the exact amount of voltage can be measured. There are two main types of voltmeters depending on the output: analog voltmeters and digital voltmeters. Difference between an ammeter and a voltmeter
As you may have already guessed, an ammeter and a voltmeter are very different. You can identify some of the differences yourself. A voltmeter measures voltage, and an ammeter measures current. A voltmeter is connected in parallel in a circuit, while an ammeter is connected in series. The ideal resistance of an ammeter should be zero. For a voltmeter, the ideal resistance is higher than that of an ammeter.
