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Re: Current Flow (shouldn't it be "charge flow?")



On Fri, 19 Apr 2002, Tim O'Donnell wrote:

A 1 ampere current flows through a wire.

Yes, but a stickler for terminology would say that a 1 ampere current
EXISTS in a wire. Currents do not flow, because a current itself is a
flow. What substance flows through your pipes at home, water or
"current?" When discussing water pipes, do we ever mention the "flow of
current", or do we speak only of flowing water?

If we constantly talk as if there were a substance called "current" which
flows through conductors, won't students come to believe that this
substance exists? Yet the "substance" flowing through wires is not called
current, it's called charge.


I watch a given point.
Each second, does a coulomb of charge go by?

Yes, because the Ampere equals one Coulomb of charge being transferred per
second.

Each second, does 6.25X10^18 electrons go by?

Closer to 6.24, not 6.25

Knowing the charge on the electron, 1.602e-19 coulombs, we can say that
one coulomb of electrons would contain 1/(1.602e-19) = 6.242e+18 electrons.


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