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What is a meter? /vol_1/chpt_8/1.html Table of Contents: What is a meter? Voltmeter design Voltmeter impact on measured circuit Ammeter design Ammeter impact on measured circuit Ohmmeter design High voltage ohmmeters Multimeters Kelvin (4-wire) resistance measurement Bridge circuits Wattmeter design Creating custom calibration resistances Contributors Back to Chapter Index What is a meter? /vol_1/chpt_8/1.html A meter is any device built to accurately detect and display an electrical quantity in a form readable by a human being. Usually this readable form is visual: motion of a pointer on a scale, a series of lights arranged to form a bargraph, or some sort of display composed of numerical figures. In the analysis and testing of circuits, there are meters designed to accurately measure the basic quantities of voltage, current, and resistance. There are many other types of meters as well, but this chapter primarily covers the design and operation of the basic three. Most modern meters are digital in design, meaning that their readable display is in the form of numerical digits. Older designs of meters are mechanical in nature, using some kind of pointer device to show quantity of measurement. In either case, the principles applied in adapting a display unit to the measurement of (relatively) large quantities of voltage, current, or resistance are the same. The display mechanism of a meter is often referred to as a movement, borrowing from its mechanical nature to move a pointer along a scale so that a measured value may be read. Though modern digital meters have no moving parts, the term movement may be applied to the same basic device performing the display function. The design of digital movements is beyond the scope of this chapter, but mechanical meter movement designs are very understandable. Most mechanical movements are based on the principle of electromagnetism: that electric current through a conductor produces a magnetic field perpendicular