Electric current

Also called Current, Conventional current

Electric current is the rate at which charge passes through a cross section of a conductor, measured in amperes, where one ampere is one coulomb per second. It is not a vector, but it has a direction: conventional current is the way positive charge would move.

Current is a rate, and the sheet defines it as one:

I=ΔqΔtI = \frac{\Delta q}{\Delta t}

Count the charge crossing a cross section of the wire and divide by the time.

Direction without being a vector. The CED is careful here: current is not a vector quantity, but it does have a direction, and that direction is associated with the motion of positive charge rather than with any coordinate system in space. Conventional current is chosen to be the direction positive charge would move. In common circuits the carriers are electrons, which drift the opposite way. Both hold at once: negative charge moving left carries as much charge rightward across your cross section as positive charge moving right would. The AP Physics 2 exam conventions state that current is conventional current unless a question says otherwise.

Zero current is not zero motion. Zero current in a section of wire means zero net motion of carriers, but the individual carriers still have plenty of speed.

Two beliefs the CED names as misconceptions: that batteries store charge, and that current is used up in a circuit. A battery maintains a potential difference, also called an emf, and the charge already in the conductor responds. The current leaving a resistor equals the current entering it; energy is what gets spent. Ohm's law says how much current a given element carries.

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