the current in a circuit can be determined if the quantity of charge Q passing through a cross

section of a wire in a time t can be measured. The current is simply the ratio of the quantity of
charge and time.

Current is a rate quantity. There are several rate quantities in physics. For instance, velocity is a
rate quantity - the rate at which an object changes its position. Mathematically, velocity is the
position change per time ratio. Acceleration is a rate quantity - the rate at which an object
changes its velocity. Mathematically, acceleration is the velocity change per time ratio.
And power is a rate quantity - the rate at which work is done on an object. Mathematically,
power is the work per time ratio. In every case of a rate quantity, the mathematical equation
involves some quantity over time. Thus, current as a rate quantity would be expressed
mathematically as

The standard metric unit for current is the ampere. Ampere is often shortened
to Amp and is abbreviated by the unit symbol A. A current of 1 ampere means that
there is 1 coulomb of charge passing through a cross section of a wire every 1 second.

1 ampere = 1 coulomb / 1 second

To test your understanding, determine the current for the following two situations.

A 2 mm long cross-section of wire is A 1 mm long cross-section of wire is

isolated and 20 C of charge is isolated and 2 C of charge is
determined to pass through it in 40 s. determined to pass through it in 0.5 s.

Conventional Current Direction

The particles that carry charge through wires in a circuit are mobile electrons. The
electric field direction within a circuit is by definition the direction that positive test
charges are pushed. Thus, these negatively charged electrons move in the direction
opposite the electric field. But while electrons are the charge carriers in metal wires, the
charge carriers in other circuits can be positive charges, negative charges or both. In
fact, the charge carriers in semiconductors, street lamps and fluorescent lamps are
simultaneously both positive and negative charges traveling in opposite directions.

Ben Franklin, who conducted extensive scientific studies in

both static and current electricity, envisioned positive
charges as the carriers of charge. As such, an early
convention for the direction of an electric current was
established to be in the direction that positive charges
would move. 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. Electrons would actually move
through the wires in the opposite direction. Knowing that the actual charge carriers in
wires are negatively charged electrons may make this convention seem a bit odd and
outdated. Nonetheless, it is the convention that is used worldwide and one that a
student of physics can easily become accustomed to.

Current versus Drift Speed

Current has to do with the number of coulombs of charge that pass a point in the circuit
per unit of time. Because of its definition, it is often confused with the quantity drift
speed. Drift speed refers to the average distance traveled by a charge carrier per unit
of time. Like the speed of any object, the drift speed of an electron moving through a
wire is the distance to time ratio. The path of a typical
electron through a wire could be described as a rather
chaotic, zigzag path characterized by collisions with
fixed atoms. Each collision results in a change in
direction of the electron. Yet because of collisions with
atoms in the solid network of the metal conductor,
there are two steps backwards for every three steps
forward. With an electric potential established across the two ends of the circuit, the
electron continues to migrate forward. Progress is always made towards the positive
terminal. Yet the overall effect of the countless collisions and the high between-collision
speeds is that the overall drift speed of an electron in a circuit is abnormally low. A
typical drift speed might be 1 meter per hour. That is slow!

One might then ask: How can there by a current on the order
of 1 or 2 ampere in a circuit if the drift speed is only about 1
meter per hour? The answer is: there are many, many charge
carriers moving at once throughout the whole length of the
circuit. Current is the rate at which charge crosses a point on a
circuit. A high current is the result of several coulombs of
charge crossing over a cross section of a wire on a circuit. If
the charge carriers are densely packed into the wire, then there
does not have to be a high speed to have a high current. That
is, the charge carriers do not have to travel a long distance in a second, there just has
to be a lot of them passing through the cross section. Current does not have to do with
how far charges move in a second but rather with how many charges pass through a
cross section of wire on a circuit.

To illustrate how densely packed the charge carriers are, we will consider a typical wire
found in household lighting circuits - a 14-gauge copper wire. In a 0.01 cm-long (very
thin) cross-sectional slice of this wire, there would be as many as 3.51 x 10 20 copper
atoms. Each copper atom has 29 electrons; it would be unlikely that even the 11
valence electrons would be in motion as charge carriers at once. If we assume that
each copper atom contributes just a single electron, then there would be as much as 56
coulombs of charge within a thin 0.01-cm length of the wire. With that much mobile
charge within such a small space, a small drift speed could lead to a very large current.

To further illustrate this distinction between drift speed and current, consider this racing
analogy. Suppose that there was a very large turtle race with millions and millions of
turtles on a very wide race track. Turtles do not move very fast - they have a very
low drift speed. Suppose that the race was rather short - say 1 meter in length - and
that a large percentage of the turtles reached the finish line at the same time - 30
minutes after the start of the race. In such a case, the current would be very large -
with millions of turtles passing a point in a short amount of time. In this analogy, speed
has to do with how far the turtles move in a certain amount of time; and current has to
do with how many turtles cross the finish line in a certain amount of time.

The Nature of Charge Flow

Once it has been established that the average drift speed of an electron is very, very
slow, the question soon arises: Why does the light in a room or in a flashlight light
immediately after the switched is turned on? Wouldn't there be a noticeable time delay
before a charge carrier moves from the switch to the light bulb filament? The answer is
NO! and the explanation of why reveals a significant amount about the nature of charge
flow in a circuit.

As mentioned above, charge carriers in the wires of electric circuits are electrons. These
electrons are simply supplied by the atoms of copper (or whatever material the wire is
made of) within the metal wire. Once the switch is turned to on, the circuit is closed
and there is an electric potential difference is established across the two ends of the
external circuit. The electric field signal travels at nearly the speed of light to all
mobile electrons within the circuit, ordering them to
begin marching. As the signal is received, the
electrons begin moving along a zigzag path in their
usual direction. Thus, the flipping of the switch causes
an immediate response throughout every part of the
circuit, setting charge carriers everywhere in motion in the same net direction. While
the actual motion of charge carriers occurs with a slow speed, the signal
that informs them to start moving travels at a fraction of the speed of light.

The electrons that light the bulb in a flashlight do not have to first travel from the
switch through 10 cm of wire to the filament. Rather, the electrons that light the bulb
immediately after the switch is turned to on are the electrons that are present in the
filament itself. As the switch is flipped, all mobile electrons everywhere begin marching;
and it is the mobile electrons present in the filament whose motion are immediately
responsible for the lighting of its bulb. As those electrons leave the filament, new
electrons enter and become the ones that are responsible for lighting the bulb. The
electrons are moving together much like the water in the pipes of a home move. When
a faucet is turned on, it is the water in the faucet that emerges from the spigot. One
does not have to wait a noticeable time for water from the entry point to your home to
travel through the pipes to the spigot. The pipes are already filled with water and water
everywhere within the water circuit is set in motion at the same time.

The picture of charge flow being developed here is a picture in which charge carriers
are like soldiers marching along together, everywhere at the same rate. Their marching
begins immediately in response to the establishment of an electric potential across the
two ends of the circuit. There is no place in the electrical
circuit where charge carriers become consumed or used
up. While the energy possessed by the charge may be
used up (or a better way of putting this is to say that the
electric energy is transformed to other forms of energy),
the charge carriers themselves do not disintegrate, disappear or otherwise become
removed from the circuit. And there is no place in the circuit where charge carriers
begin to pile up or accumulate. The rate at which charge enters the external circuit on
one end is the same as the rate at which charge exits the external circuit on the other
end. Current - the rate of charge flow - is everywhere the same. Charge flow is like the
movement of soldiers marching in step together, everywhere at the same rate.