Quantities Measured
Contemporary multimeters can measure many quantities. The common ones are:
- Voltage, alternating and direct, in volts.
- Current, alternating and direct, in amperes.
The frequency range for which AC measurements are accurate must be specified. - Resistance in ohms.
Additionally, some multimeters measure:
- Capacitance in farads.
- Conductance in siemens.
- Decibels.
- Duty cycle as a percentage.
- Frequency in hertz.
- Inductance in henrys.
- Temperature in degrees Celsius or Fahrenheit, with an appropriate temperature test probe, often a thermocouple.
Digital multimeters may also include circuits for:
- Continuity tester; sounds when a circuit conducts
- Diodes (measuring forward drop of diode junctions), and transistors (measuring current gain and other parameters)
- Battery checking for simple 1.5 volt and 9 volt batteries. This is a current loaded voltage scale which simulates in-use voltage measurement.
Various sensors can be attached to multimeters to take measurements such as:
- Light level
- Acidity/Alkalinity(pH)
- Wind speed
- Relative humidity
Read more about this topic: Multimeter
Famous quotes containing the words quantities and/or measured:
“The Walrus and the Carpenter
Were walking close at hand:
They wept like anything to see
Such quantities of sand:
“If this were only cleared away,”
They said, “it would be grand!”
“If seven maids with seven mops
Swept it for half a year,
Do you suppose,” the Walrus said,
“That they could get it clear?”
“I doubt it,” said the Carpenter,
And shed a bitter tear.”
—Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)
“Much poetry seems to be aware of its situation in time and of its relation to the metronome, the clock, and the calendar. ... The season or month is there to be felt; the day is there to be seized. Poems beginning “When” are much more numerous than those beginning “Where” of “If.” As the meter is running, the recurrent message tapped out by the passing of measured time is mortality.”
—William Harmon (b. 1938)