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