I.

Contribution to knowledge

ELECTRIC CURRENT

 Refers to some type of flow, and in this case we mean a flow of electric charge. It
maybe considered as flow of electrons which will generate electric charge. A
charge .
 it is electric charge in motion. It can take the form of a sudden discharge of static
electricity, such as a lightning bolt or a spark between your finger and a ground
light switch plate. More commonly, though, when we speak of electric current, we
mean the more controlled form of electricity from generators, batteries, solar cells
or fuel cells

Current

Is the movement of free electrons. It comes about when voltage is applied to a

closed circuit.

The electric symbol for current is I and its basic unit is ampere.

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.

Alternating current

Most of the electricity that we use comes in the form of alternating current (AC) from the
electric power grid. Alternating current is produced by electric generators that operate
on Faraday’s Law of Induction, by which a changing magnetic field can induce an
electric current in a conductor.

Direct current
 The next known way to create a charge imbalance was the electro-chemical
battery, invented in 1800 by Italian physicist Alessandro Volta for whom the unit
for electromotive force, the volt (V) is named.
 Other DC sources include fuel cells, which combine oxygen and hydrogen into
water, and produce electrical energy in the process.
II. Related Studies
Electric charge and current - a short history
Electrical phenomena result from a fundamental property of matter - electric charge. The atoms that
constitute most matter we encounter contain charged particles. Protons and electrons each have
one unit charge, but of opposite sign. Atoms are generally neutral because the number of electrons
and protons are the same.

Electric charges at rest have been known much longer than electric currents.

The amber effect

The property now called 'static electricity' was known to the philosophers of ancient Greece. In fact
the word electricity comes from ‘elektron’, the Greek name for amber. Amber is a resinous mineral
used to make jewellery. It is probable that small fibres of clothing clung to amber jewels and were
quite difficult to remove. Trying to rub the fibres off made the situation worse, causing early
philosophers to wonder why.

William Gilbert mentioned the 'amber effect' in his ground-breaking book On Magnetism, published in
1600. He noticed that the attraction between 'electrics' was much weaker than magnetism and
wrongly said that electrics never repelled.

Benjamin Franklin
A giant leap of understanding was required to explain observations like these in terms of positive
and negative electrical charge. In the 18th century, Benjamin Franklin in America tried experiments
with charges. It was Franklin who named the two kinds of electricity ‘positive’ and ‘negative’. He
even collected electric charges from thunderstorm clouds through wet string from a kite.

Franklin was an advocate of a ‘single fluid’ model of electric charge. An object with an excess of fluid
would have one charge; an object with a deficit of fluid would have the opposite charge. Other
scientists had advocated a ‘two fluid’ theory, with separate positive and negative fluids moving
around. It took over a century for the debate to come down on Franklin’s side.

It is interesting to note that Franklin coined several electrical terms which we still use today: battery,
charge, conductor, plus, minus, positively, negatively, condenser (= capacitor), among others.

Electric currents
Electric currents were not fully investigated until batteries were invented in about 1800. Passing
currents through salt solutions provides evidence that there are two kinds of charge carriers, positive
and negative. The charge carriers that boil out of white hot metals are negative electrons, and
movements of electrons produce current in a cool, metal wirei

For a time electric currents seemed so different from electric charges at rest that the two were
studied separately. It seemed as if there were four kinds of electricity: positive and negative
electrostatic charges, and positive and negative moving charges in currents. Now scientists know
better. There are just two kinds, positive and negative, exerting the same kind of forces whether they
were ‘electrostatic charges from friction’ or ‘moving charges from power supplies’.

A modern view
Electric forces are what hold together atoms and molecules, solids and liquids. In collisions between
objects, electric forces push things apart.

Today we understand that electrons may be transferred when two different materials contact each
other and then separate. You can list materials in order, from those “most likely to lose electrons”
(gaining positive charge) to "those most likely to gain electrons” (gaining negative charge). This is
called the 'triboelectric series'.
III. Summary

Electric current which defined as the flow of electric charge in which charge refers to a certain
electrical condition where electrons exert force on one another.

The electric charge are mostly carried by the electrons and protons within an atom.
Protons have positive charge, while electrons have negative charge. However, protons
are mostly immobilized inside atomic nuclei, so the job of carrying charge from one
place to another is handled by electrons. Electrons in a conducting material such as a
metal are largely free to move from one atom to another along their conduction bands,
which are the highest electron orbits.

Furthermore, current mainly defined as the flow if electron in which it comes about when
voltage is applied to a closed circuit, hence, is I and its basic unit is ampere. Current is
into two kinds the Alternating and direct current.

Base on its origin, Electric currents were not fully investigated until batteries were
invented in about 1800. Passing currents through salt solutions provides evidence that there are two
kinds of charge carriers, positive and negative. The charge carriers that boil out of white hot metals
are negative electrons, and movements of electrons produce current in a cool, metal wirei

For a time electric currents seemed so different from electric charges at rest that the two were
studied separately. It seemed as if there were four kinds of electricity: positive and negative
electrostatic charges, and positive and negative moving charges in currents. Now scientists know
better. There are just two kinds, positive and negative, exerting the same kind of forces whether they
were ‘electrostatic charges from friction’ or ‘moving charges from power supplies’.

Electric forces are what hold together atoms and molecules, solids and liquids. In collisions between
objects, electric forces push things apart.

Today we understand that electrons may be transferred when two different materials contact each
other and then separate. You can list materials in order, from those “most likely to lose electrons”
(gaining positive charge) to "those most likely to gain electrons” (gaining negative charge). This is
called the 'triboelectric series'.
IV. Points to Ponder

 Electric current is the flow of electric charge, the intensity of

which is usually measured in amperes
 Electric charge i the electrical condition where electrons
exert force on one another. It could be measured in units
called Coulombs abbreviated as . It comes in two styles,
positivr charge + and negative charge -.
 Most of the electricity that we use comes in the form of alternating current (AC)
from the electric power gri which is produced by electric generators that operate
on Faraday’s Law of Induction, by which a changing magnetic field can induce an
electric current in a conductor.
 The best known way to create a charge imbalance was the electro-chemical
battery, invented in 1800 by Italian physicist Alessandro Volta for whom the unit
for electromotive force, the volt (V) is named.
 Direct Current sources include fuel cells, which combine oxygen and hydrogen
into water, and produce electrical energy in the process.
 electrons may be transferred when two different materials contact each other and then
separate. You can list materials in order, from those “most likely to lose electrons” (gaining
positive charge) to "those most likely to gain electrons” (gaining negative charge). This is
called the 'triboelectric series'.