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POGIL: Electric Current Electric Charge Experiments shows that there must be something that flows through an electric

circuit. That something is electric charge carried by electrons. The unit of electric charge is the Coulomb, abbreviated C. To give you a feeling for what a Coulomb is, consider the following quantities of charge: the charge received from a bolt of lightning (potentially lethal) is 1 to 10 C the typical amount of charge received from an electrostatic shock (like touching a doorknob after rubbing your feet across a floor) is around 106 C the charge on a proton is +1.60x1019 C the charge on an electron is 1.60x1019 C

The charge on a proton is called the fundamental charge unit and is given the algebraic symbol e. The charge on a proton is therefore +e and the charge on an electron is e. 1. How many electrons are carried by: (a) a 10 C bolt of lightning?

(b) an electrostatic shock of 106 C?

2. How much charge is carried by: (a) a doubly ionized calcium ion?

(b) the 8.12x1023 protons in a penny

Electric Current In an electric circuit, we often want to know the rate of flow of charge through a wire. This quantity is called electric current. We define the electric current I as I= q , t

where q is the amount of charge that flows through the wire in a time t. The unit of measurement of electric current is a Coulomb per second (C/s); we call this unit an Ampere, abbreviated A. 3. Suppose 20 C of charge pass through a wire in 5 s. What is the current in the wire?

4. If 100 C of charge pass through a wire in one minute, what is the current in the wire?

5. If 6.02x1023 electrons travel through a wire each second, what is the current through the wire?

6. A wire carries an electric current of 10 A. (a) How much charge passes through the wire in one hour?

(b) How long does it take 1000 C of charge to pass through the wire?

(c) How many electrons travel through the wire each second?

7. For a current of 1 A through a wire, the typical speed of the electrons is only around 10 cm/hour. How can there be an appreciable electric current despite this extremely low speed?

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