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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.
Sparks — Electrical breakdown of a medium that produces an ongoing plasma discharge, similar to the instant spark, resulting from a current flowing through normally nonconductive media such as air. Telluric currents — Extremely low frequency electric current that occurs naturally over large underground areas at or near the surface of the Earth.
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 ...
Electric power is the rate of transfer of electrical energy within a circuit.Its SI unit is the watt, the general unit of power, defined as one joule per second.Standard prefixes apply to watts as with other SI units: thousands, millions and billions of watts are called kilowatts, megawatts and gigawatts respectively.
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 ...
The term DC is used to refer to power systems that use only one electrical polarity of voltage or current, and to refer to the constant, zero-frequency, or slowly varying local mean value of a voltage or current. [9] For example, the voltage across a DC voltage source is constant as is the current through a direct current source.
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Mains electricity, utility power, grid power, domestic power, wall power, household current, [2] or, in some parts of Canada, hydro, is a general-purpose alternating-current (AC) electric power supply. It is the form of electrical power that is delivered to homes and businesses through the electrical grid in many parts of the world. People use ...