Electricity - Electrical Charge, Electric Fields, Coulomb's Law And The Forces Between Electrical Charges, Resistance - Current, Voltage, Ohm's law
ampere proportional energy named
Electricity is a natural phenomenon resulting from one of the most basic properties of matter, electrical charge. Our understanding of electrical principles has developed from a long history of experimentation. Electrical technology, essential to modern society for energy transmission and information processing, is the result of our knowledge about electrical charge at rest and electrical charge in motion.
The basic unit of electric current is the ampere, named for the French physicist Andre Marie Ampere. One ampere equals 1 coulomb of charge drifting past a reference point each second.
Voltage is the ratio of energy stored by a given a quantity of charge. Work must be performed to crowd same-polarity electric charges against their mutual repulsion. This work is stored as electrical potential energy, proportional to voltage. Voltage may also be thought of as electrical pressure.
The unit of voltage is the volt, named for Alessandro Volta. One volt equals one joule for every coulomb of electrical charge accumulated.
Ohm's law defines the relationship between the three variables affecting simple circuit action. According to Ohm's law, current is directly proportional to the net voltage in a circuit and current is inversely proportional to resistance.
Additional Topics
Electrical charge is a fundamental property possessed by a few types of particles that make up atoms. Electrical charge is found with either positive or negative polarity. Positive charge exactly neutralizes an equal quantity of negative charge. Charges with the same sign repel while unlike charges attract. The unit of electrical charge is the coulomb, named for Charles Coulomb, an early authority…
Charged particles alter their surrounding space to produce an effect called an electric field. An electric field is the concept we use to describe how one electric charge exerts force on another distant electric charge. Whether electric charges are at rest or moving, they are acted upon by a force whenever they are within an electric field. The ratio of this force to the amount of charge is the me…
Force, quantity of charge, and distance of separation are related by a rule called Coulomb's law. This law states that the force between electrical charges is proportional to the product of their charges and inversely proportional to the square of their separation. The coulomb force binds atoms together to form chemical compounds. It is this same force that accelerates electrons in a TV pic…
The product of voltage and current equals electrical power. The unit of electrical power is the watt, named for James Watt. One watt of electrical power equals 1 joule per second. If 1 volt forces a 1-ampere current through a 1-ohm resistance, 1 joule per second will be wasted as heat. That is, 1 watt of power will be dissipated. A 100-watt incandescent lamp requires 100 joules for each second it …
Direct current, or DC, results from an electric charge that moves in only one direction. A car's battery, for example, provides a direct current when it forces electrical charge through the starter motor or through the car's headlights. The direction of this current does not change. Current that changes direction periodically is called alternating current, or AC. Our homes are suppli…
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