Electronic – Does voltage cause current or does current cause voltage

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So as the question asks, say you have a circuit with a battery connected to a resistor to form a complete circuit in this case does voltage cause current through the resistor? or does the voltage across cause the current?

I feel like there are so many explanations of various electronic circuits and devices in which people say that current cause a voltage to appear and in other cases the other way round which one is it?

As far as I know based on basic physics of voltage and electric fields once a circuit is completed the charge separation between the two ends of a battery cause an electric field through the entire metal, resister/capacitor etc this causes the electron cloud to drift one way or the other am I wrong? how can current cause a voltage drop?

Best Answer

One doesn't necessarily cause the other. But you can't (except in special cases such as a superconductor or a perfect insulator, only one of which actually exists) have one without the other.

You can't produce a voltage without supplying charge (or current) to force some place to have that voltage.

You can't force a current to flow through some circuit element without applying a voltage across the element.

In some circuits you might explain the operation by saying a voltage source causes current to flow, or a current source causes a voltage to be produced. But at the deepest level, voltage and current are simply inseperable.

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