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Ampere
SI base unit of electric current / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The ampere (/ˈæmpɛər/ AM-pair, US: /ˈæmpɪər/ AM-peer;[1][2][3] symbol: A),[4] often shortened to amp,[5] is the unit of electric current in the International System of Units (SI). One ampere is equal to 1 coulomb (C) moving past a point per second.[6][7][8] It is named after French mathematician and physicist André-Marie Ampère (1775–1836), considered the father of electromagnetism along with Danish physicist Hans Christian Ørsted.
ampere | |
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![]() Demonstration model of a moving iron ammeter. As the current through the coil increases, the plunger is drawn further into the coil and the pointer deflects to the right. | |
General information | |
Unit system | SI |
Unit of | electric current |
Symbol | A |
Named after | André-Marie Ampère |
As of the 2019 redefinition of the SI base units, the ampere is defined by fixing the elementary charge e to be exactly 1.602176634×10−19 C,[6][9] which means an ampere is an electric current equivalent to 1019 elementary charges moving every 1.602176634 seconds or 6.241509074×1018 elementary charges moving in a second. Prior to the redefinition the ampere was defined as the current passing through two parallel wires 1 metre apart that produces a magnetic force of 2×10−7 newtons per metre.
The earlier CGS system has two units of current, one structured similarly to the SI's and the other using Coulomb's law as a fundamental relationship, with the CGS unit of charge defined by measuring the force between two charged metal plates. The CGS unit of current is then defined as one unit of charge per second.[10]