8 - Charge and Current Flashcards
Conductors
Materials that allow electrical charge to flow due to free charge carriers.
Conservation of Charge
The total charge in a system remains constant.
Conventional Current
Current flow from positive to negative, used in circuit diagrams.
Coulomb
The unit of charge.
Electric Current
The rate of flow of charge in a circuit.
Electrolytes
Substances that contain ions that allow current to flow when dissolved.
Electron Flow
The flow of electrons, opposite to conventional current, from negative to positive.
Elementary Charge
The smallest charge possible, equal to the charge of an electron.
Insulators
Materials that do not allow electrical charge to flow.
Kirchhoff’s First Law
The total current entering a junction is equal to the total current leaving.
Mean Drift Velocity
The average velocity of an electron in a conductor, proportional to current.
Quantisation of Charge
The idea that charge exists in discrete multiples of the elementary charge.
Semiconductors
Materials that can change their number of charge carriers, e.g., light-dependent resistors (LDRs).
