Ampere
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The ampere or amp for short, (symbol: A) is a unit of electric current, or amount of electric charge per second. The ampere is an SI base unit. It is named after André-Marie Ampère, one of the main discoverers of electromagnetism.
Electric current is the time rate of change or displacement of electric charge. One ampere represents the rate of one coulomb of charge per second. In the SI the ampere is defined first. The unit of charge, the coulomb, is based on the ampere and the one second.
The ampere is defined by picturing two wires. These wires go in the same direction as each other. They are placed one metre apart in a vacuum. They are infinitely long and very thin. One ampere is the current that would produce an attractive force of 2×10–7 newton per metre of length between these wires.[1]
[edit] References
- ↑ Paul M. S. Monk, Physical Chemistry: Understanding our Chemical World, John Wiley and Sons, 2004 online.