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In other media, any stream of charged objects (ions, for example) may constitute an electric current. To provide a definition of current independent of the type of charge carriers, conventional current is defined as moving in the same direction as the positive charge flow. So, in metals where the charge carriers (electrons) are negative ...
The electric field was formally defined as the force exerted per unit charge, but the concept of potential allows for a more useful and equivalent definition: the electric field is the local gradient of the electric potential. Usually expressed in volts per metre, the vector direction of the field is the line of greatest slope of potential, and ...
For example, the voltage across a DC voltage source is constant as is the current through a direct current source. The DC solution of an electric circuit is the solution where all voltages and currents are constant. Any stationary voltage or current waveform can be decomposed into a sum of a DC component and a zero-mean time-varying component ...
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 ...
The usual waveform of alternating current in most electric power circuits is a sine wave, whose positive half-period corresponds with positive direction of the current and vice versa (the full period is called a cycle). "Alternating current" most commonly refers to power distribution, but a wide range of other applications are technically ...
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 ).
In condensed matter physics and electrochemistry, drift current is the electric current, or movement of charge carriers, which is due to the applied electric field, often stated as the electromotive force over a given distance. When an electric field is applied across a semiconductor material, a current is produced due to the flow of charge ...
Angle notation can easily describe leading and lagging current: . [1] In this equation, the value of theta is the important factor for leading and lagging current. As mentioned in the introduction above, leading or lagging current represents a time shift between the current and voltage sine curves, which is represented by the angle by which the curve is ahead or behind of where it would be ...