An ammeter is a low resistance galvanometer connected in series to measure current passing through a circuit. It must have very low resistance to not affect the circuit. A voltmeter is a high resistance galvanometer connected in parallel to measure potential difference across a component without drawing much current, so it has very high resistance. A galvanometer can be converted into an ammeter by adding a shunt resistance in parallel to reduce the voltage, or into a voltmeter by adding a high resistance in series to increase the voltage.