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Electricity plays a central role in many modern technologies, serving in electric power where electric current is used to energise equipment, and in electronics dealing with electrical circuits involving active components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies.
A voltage across a conductor causes an electric field, which accelerates the electrons in the direction of the electric field, causing a drift of electrons which is the electric current. However the electrons collide with atoms which causes them to scatter and randomizes their motion, thus converting kinetic energy to heat ( thermal energy ).
The ampere is an SI base unit and electric current is a base quantity in the International System of Quantities (ISQ). [4]: 15 Electric current is also known as amperage and is measured using a device called an ammeter. [2]: 788 Electric currents create magnetic fields, which are used in motors, generators, inductors, and transformers.
Skin effect — Tendency of charges to distribute at the surface of a conductor, when an alternating current passes through it. Static electricity — Class of phenomena involving the imbalanced charge present on an object, typically referring to charge with voltages of sufficient magnitude to produce visible attraction (e.g., static cling ...
The flow of negatively charged electrons generates electric current, positively charged holes, and positive or negative ions in some cases. In order for current to flow within a closed electrical circuit , one charged particle does not need to travel from the component producing the current (the current source ) to those consuming it (the loads ).
[12] [13] The prefix tribo-(Greek for 'rub') refers to sliding, friction and related processes, as in tribology. [14] From the axial age (8th to 3rd century BC) the attraction of materials due to static electricity by rubbing amber and the attraction of magnetic materials were considered to be similar or the same. [11]
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In the case of the current generator, , the time integral of current represents the quantity of electric charge physically delivered by the generator. Here Φ {\displaystyle \Phi } is the time integral of voltage, but whether or not that represents a physical quantity depends on the nature of the voltage source.