What is current in an electric circuit?

What is current in an electric circuit?

• A. Current of negative charges in motion.
• B. Current of positive charges in motion.
• C. The energy transferred per unit charge.
• D. The opposition to the flow of charge.

Answer: (A)

Current is the rate at which electric charge passes a point in a circuit. In metal wires, the charge carriers are electrons, which are negatively charged, so the current arises from the flow of these negative charges. The direction used for conventional current is opposite to the actual motion of electrons, but the quantity itself is the amount of charge flowing per second. The other ideas—energy transferred per unit charge (voltage) and the opposition to flow (resistance)—aren’t the definition of current.

Current is the rate at which electric charge passes a point in a circuit. In metal wires, the charge carriers are electrons, which are negatively charged, so the current arises from the flow of these negative charges. The direction used for conventional current is opposite to the actual motion of electrons, but the quantity itself is the amount of charge flowing per second. The other ideas—energy transferred per unit charge (voltage) and the opposition to flow (resistance)—aren’t the definition of current.