Electric current Electric current An electric current is a flow of electric charge. In electric circuits this charge is often carried by moving electrons in a wire. It can also be carried by ions in an electrolyte, or by both ions and electrons such as in an ionised gas (plasma). The SI unit for measuring an electric current is the ampere, which is the flow of electric charge across a surface at the rate of one coulomb per second. Electric current is measured using a device called an ammeter. Electric currents cause Joule heating, which creates light in incandescent light bulbs. They
Maxwell (unit) non-SI unit. That is, one maxwell is the total flux across a surface of one square centimetre perpendicular to a magnetic field of strength one gauss. The weber is the related SI unit of magnetic flux, which was defined in 1946. Maxwell (unit) The maxwell (symbol: Mx) is the CGS (centimetre-gram-second) unit of magnetic flux (). The unit name honours James Clerk Maxwell, who presented a unified theory of electromagnetism. The "maxwell" was recommended as a CGS unit at the International Electrical Congress held in 1900 at Paris. This practical unit was previously called a "line", reflecting Faraday's conception of