Which charge is responsible for current?5 min read

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Free electrons are responsible for current in the conductors. Free electrons are valance shell electrons having a weaker force of attraction between them and nucleus and so they are free to move in the metal conducting current in the metal (conductor).

What is responsible for the current?

Current is defined as the rate of flow of charge. In a metallic conductor, it is the free electrons that are responsible for the flow of current.

What is the charge of current?

An electric current is a flow of charged particles. In metal conductors the charged particles are free electrons. The electrons are free to move from one ion to another and a net flow of these electrons in one direction is an electric current.

Are electrons responsible for current?

The movement of electrons in a wire constitutes the electric current. Protons and neutrons are situated inside the nucleus of an atom.

Does current come from positive or negative?

In metal wires, current is carried by negatively charged electrons, so the positive current arrow points in the opposite direction the electrons move. This has been the sign convention for 270 years, ever since Ben Franklin named electric charges with + and – signs.

What creates current?

Electricity is created when an outside force causes electrons to move from atom to atom. The flow of electrons is called an “electrical current.” What causes the electrons to move? Voltage is the “outside force” that causes electrons to move.

What causes current to form?

Ocean currents can be caused by wind, density differences in water masses caused by temperature and salinity variations, gravity, and events such as earthquakes or storms. Currents are cohesive streams of seawater that circulate through the ocean.

Does current depend on charge?

TLDR: Current is proportional to the number of units of charge that pass a given point in a unit of time. Specifically, one Ampere of current is one Coulomb of charge per second. The speed with which the individual charged particles move is not part of that definition.

Is current a charge or energy?

Current is the flow of charge. It is similar to the flow of water in a river or garden hose. The key difference is there is one type of water but there are two types of charge, moving in opposite directions.

Does charge carry current?

Electric current is a flow of charge That thing is charge, and there can be many different objects that carry the charge. The current is the same at each point in the single circuit loop – there are no leaks! And no charge accumulates at different points. The charge originates in the circuit itself.

Can current flow without electrons?

Circuits don’t create, destroy, use up, or lose electrons. They just carry the electrons around in circles. For this reason, circuit electrical systems can’t really run out of electrons.

Do protons carry current?

Electrons are held in their shells by an electrical force. The protons and electrons of an atom are attracted to each other. They both carry an electrical charge.

Do electrons or protons move in current?

Electric current is the the flow of electric charge through an electrical conductor. A typical electrical conductor is a wire made of a metal such as copper, iron, or silver. When discussing the flow of electric charge, it is the electrons that move through the wire. The protons and neutrons do not move.

Can current be in negative?

Since current can be the flow of either positive or negative charges, or both, a convention is needed for the direction of current that is independent of the type of charge carriers.

Can current come in negative?

Current can be positive or negative in an ideal wire or superconductor without the existence of a voltage difference between two points on the conductor.

Is current a negative charge?

Current is the rate of flow of positive charge. Current can be caused by the flow of electrons, ions or other charged particles. Electrons are negatively charged, so the direction electrons flow is the opposite direction to current.

Where current is produced?

The flow of electrons inside the conducting material or conductor generates an electric current. The force that is required to drive the current flow through the conductor is known as voltage.

What controls the direction of the currents?

The convention has stuck and is still used today. The direction of an electric current is by convention the direction in which a positive charge would move. Thus, the current in the external circuit is directed away from the positive terminal and toward the negative terminal of the battery.

How does current flow?

Current flows from positive to negative and electron flows from negative to positive. Current is determined by the number of electrons passing through a cross-section of a conductor in one second. Current is measured in amperes, which is abbreviated “amps”. The symbol for amps is a letter “A”.

Where current is generated?

Most of world electricity generation is from generators that are based on scientist Michael Faraday’s discovery in 1831 that moving a magnet inside a coil of wire makes (induces) an electric current to flow in the wire.

Why does current flow from negative to positive?

Electrons are negatively charged, and so are attracted to the positive end of a battery and repelled by the negative end. So when the battery is hooked up to something that lets the electrons flow through it, they flow from negative to positive. Q.

What force causes current flow?

Voltage is the electrical force that causes free electrons to move from one atom to another. Just as water needs some pressure to force it through a pipe, electrical current needs some force to make it flow. “Volts” is the measure of “electrical pressure” that causes current flow.