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Electric charge is a conserved property: the net charge of an isolated system, the quantity of positive charge minus the amount of negative charge, cannot change. Electric charge is carried by subatomic particles. In ordinary matter, negative charge is carried by electrons, and positive charge is carried by the protons in the nuclei of atoms ...
In physics, charge conservation is the principle, of experimental nature, that the total electric charge in an isolated system never changes. [1] The net quantity of electric charge, the amount of positive charge minus the amount of negative charge in the universe, is always conserved.
An electric current is a flow of charged particles, such as electrons or ions, moving through an electrical conductor or space. It is defined as the net rate of flow of electric charge through a surface. [1]: 2 [2]: 622 The moving particles are called charge carriers, which may be one of several types of particles, depending on the conductor.
Thus, for example, the electric charge is the generator of the U(1) symmetry of electromagnetism. The conserved current is the electric current. In the case of local, dynamical symmetries, associated with every charge is a gauge field; when quantized, the gauge field becomes a gauge boson. The charges of the theory "radiate" the gauge field.
A stronger form of conservation law requires that, for the amount of a conserved quantity at a point to change, there must be a flow, or flux of the quantity into or out of the point. For example, the amount of electric charge at a point is never found to change without an electric current into or out of the point that carries the difference in ...
Electric charge gives rise to and interacts with the electromagnetic force, one of the four fundamental forces of nature. Experiment has shown charge to be a conserved quantity, that is, the net charge within an electrically isolated system will always remain constant regardless of any changes taking place within that system. [41]
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For example, if in the mass continuity equation for flowing water, u is the water's velocity at each point, and ρ is the water's density at each point, then j would be the mass flux, also known as the material discharge. In a well-known example, the flux of electric charge is the electric current density.