What is Electric Current?


Electric Current from Wikipedia

Electric current is a flow of electric charge through a medium. This charge is typically carried by moving electrons in a conductor such as wire. It can also be carried by ions in an electrolyte, or by both ions and electrons in a plasma.

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Electric Current Flowing through a circuit.
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Electric Current from phy-astr.gsu.edu

Electric current is the rate of charge flow past a given point in an electric circuit, measured in Coulombs/second which is named Amperes. In most DC electric circuits, it can be assumed that the resistance to current flow is a constant so that the current in the circuit is related to voltage and resistance by Ohm's law. The standard abbreviations for the units are 1 A = 1C/s.

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Electric Current from Britannica.com

electric current, any movement of electric charge carriers, such as subatomic charged particles (e.g., electrons having negative charge, protons having positive charge), ions (atoms that have lost or gained one or more electrons), or holes (electron deficiencies that may be thought of as positive particles).

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Electric Current from physicsclassroom.com

If the two requirements of an electric circuit are met, then charge will flow through the external circuit. It is said that there is a current - a flow of charge. Using the word current in this context is to simply use it to say that something is happening in the wires - charge is moving. Yet current is a physical quantity that can be measured and expressed numerically. As a physical quantity, current is the rate at which charge flows past a point on a circuit. As depicted in the diagram below, the current in a circuit can be determined if the quantity of charge Q passing through a cross section of a wire in a time t can be measured. The current is simply the ratio of the quantity of charge and time.

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