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Electric current Electric current can mean, depending on the context, a flow of electric charge (aphenomenon) or the rate of flow of electric charge (a quantity).[1] The electriccharge that flows is carried by, for example, mobile electrons in a conductor,ions in an electrolyte or both in a plasma.[2]The SI unit for rate of flow of electric charge is the ampere. Electric current ismeasured using an ammeter.[1]Electric current through various mediaMetalsA solid conductive metal contains mobile, or free, electrons. These electrons arebound to the metal lattice but not to any individual atom. Even with no externalelectric field applied, these electrons move about randomly due to thermal energybut, on average, there is zero net current within the metal. Given a plane throughwhich the wire passes, the number of electrons moving from one side to the otherin any period of time is on average equal to the number passing in the oppositedirection. As George Gamow put in his science popularizing book, One, Two,Three...Infinity (1947), "The metallic substances differ from all other materialsby the fact that the outer shells of their atoms are bound rather loosely, andoften let one of their electrons go free. Thus the interior of a metal is filledup with a large number of unattached electrons that travel aimlessly around like acrowd of displaced persons. When a metal wire is subjected to electric forceapplied on its opposite ends, these free electrons rush in the direction of theforce, thus forming what we call an electric current." A typical wire for electrical conduction is the stranded copper wire.When a metal wire is connected across the two terminals of a DC voltage sourcesuch as a battery, the source places an electric field across the conductor. Themoment contact is made, the free electrons of the conductor are forced to drifttoward the positive terminal under the influence of this field. The free electronsare therefore the current carrier in a typical solid conductor. For an electriccurrent of 1 ampere, 1 coulomb of electric charge (which consists of about 6.242 ×1018 electrons) drifts every second through any plane through which the conductorpasses.For a steady flow, the current I in amperes can be calculated with the followingequation: whereQ is the electric charge in coulombs transferredt is the time in secondsMore generally, electric current can be represented as the time rate of change ofcharge, or.Other mediaIn metallic solids, electricity flows by means of electrons, from lower to higherelectrical potential. In other media, any stream of charged objects may constitutean electric current.In a vacuum, a beam of ions or electrons may be formed. In other conductivematerials, the electric current is due to the flow of both positively andnegatively charged particles at the same time. In still others, the current isentirely due to positive charge flow. For example, the electric currents inelectrolytes are flows of electrically charged atoms (ions), which exist in bothpositive and negative varieties. In a common lead-acid electrochemical cell,electric currents are composed of positive hydrogen ions (protons) flowing in onedirection, and negative sulfate ions flowing in the other. Electric currents insparks or plasma are flows of electrons as well as positive and negative ions. Inice and in certain solid electrolytes, the electric current is entirely composed

of flowing ions. In a semiconductor it is sometimes useful to think of the currentas due to the flow of positive "holes" (the mobile positive charge carriers thatare places where the semiconductor crystal is missing a valence electron). This isthe case in a p-type semiconductor.Current densityCurrent density is a measure of the density of an electric current. It is definedas a vector whose magnitude is the electric current per cross-sectional area. InSI units, the current density is measured in amperes per square meter..whereI is current in the conductorJ is the current density, and,A is the cross-sectional area.The dot product of two vector quantity signifies that electric current is ascalar.Drift speedThe mobile charged particles within a conductor move constantly in randomdirections, like the particles of a gas. In order for there to be a net flow ofcharge, the particles must also move together with an average drift rate.Electrons are the charge carriers in metals and they follow an erratic path,bouncing from atom to atom, but generally drifting in the direction of theelectric field. The speed at which they drift can be calculated from the equation:I = nAvQwhereI is the electric currentn is number of charged particles per unit volume (or charge carrier density)A is the cross-sectional area of the conductorv is the drift velocity, andQ is the charge on each particle.Electric currents in solids typically flow very slowly. For example, in a copperwire of cross-section 0.5 mm2, carrying a current of 5 A, the drift velocity ofthe electrons is of the order of a millimetre per second. To take a differentexample, in the near-vacuum inside a cathode ray tube, the electrons travel innear-straight lines at about a tenth of the speed of light.Any accelerating electric charge, and therefore any changing electric current,gives rise to an electromagnetic wave that propagates at very high speed outsidethe surface of the conductor. This speed is usually a significant fraction of thespeed of light, as can be deduced from Maxwell's Equations, and is therefore manytimes faster than the drift velocity of the electrons. For example, in AC powerlines, the waves of electromagnetic energy propagate through the space between thewires, moving from a source to a distant load, even though the electrons in thewires only move back and forth over a tiny distance.The ratio of the speed of the electromagnetic wave to the speed of light in freespace is called the velocity factor, and depends on the electromagnetic propertiesof the conductor and the insulating materials surrounding it, and on their shapeand size.The nature of these three velocities can be illustrated by an analogy with thethree similar velocities associated with gases. The low drift velocity of chargecarriers is analogous to air motion; in other words, winds. The high speed ofelectromagnetic waves is roughly analogous to the speed of sound in a gas; whilethe random motion of charges is analogous to heat - the thermal velocity ofrandomly vibrating gas particles.Electromagnetism According to Ampère's law, an electric current produces a magnetic field.Electric current produces a magnetic field. The magnetic field can be visualizedas a pattern of circular field lines surrounding the wire.Electric current can be directly measured with a galvanometer, but this method