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1800-102-2727You turn on the switch of your fan, it starts spinning. You start the motor, the motor starts running almost instantaneously. So what do you think is responsible for making them work? The answer is electricity, also known as current. We cannot imagine a world without it. With that being said, let’s try to visualise current:a stream of positively charged particles moving from one point to another. Materials that allow current to flow through them are called conductors; you might have heard a lot about copper quoted as a good conductor, since it allows current to pass through it. But it's not as if the charges are going to flow in a conductor by themselves; there must be a potential difference between two points which causes current to flow; this potential difference is provided with the help of a battery. The correlation between current and potential difference was studied by a scientist named George Simon Ohm, who coined Ohm's law. In this article, we will explore current density, Ohm’s law and its limitations.
Table of contents
, where
is the amount of charge flown in time
Note:
indicates the vector dot product of current density and area vector.
indicates the area vector normal to the surface
I.e
is called Resistance of the conductor. The unit of resistance is Ohm
The current density,
Now where
indicates the conductivity of the material.
(
.
indicates Ohm’s law
Comparing, we get
specific resistance or resistance of the conductor. From the above equation, it is clear that the resistance of a conductor is directly proportional to its length but inversely proportional to its area of cross section. The unit of resistivity is
Since
, the slope of
graph gives the value of reciprocal of resistance
.
Q. The current flowing through a conductor as a function of time is given by The charge that has flown in the wire between
and
is
(a) (b)
(c)
(d)
A. c
Given, current
Now
Q. A potential difference of is applied between the ends of a conductor having a resistance of
The charge flown through the wire in a time interval of
min is
(a) (b)
(c)
(d)
A. b
Given
Q. In a conductor, it is found that electrons, each having a charge of
pass from one point to another in
Calculate the current flowing through the conductor? Also give the direction of the current?
(a) (b)
(c)
(d)
A. a
Given, number of electrons,
Current,
The direction of conventional current is from terminal of the battery to
terminal.
Q. A silver wire carries a current of Find the amount of charge that has flown in the wire in
A. Given, Current
Charge,
Q. What is the value of ?
A. 1 ohm is the value of resistance of a conductor, when a voltage of applied causes a current of
to flow through it.
Q. Why do we use current density?
A. It is useful for the design and construction of electrical and electronic elements. The strength of the current flowing through a given area helps to know the safe current level of the instruments.
Q. How does increasing the radius of a wire affect the current density ?
A.
Upon increasing the radius, the current density reduces.
Q. Current is a scalar quantity. Why?
A. Current is scalar, because it follows algebraic addition or subtraction, but not vector addition or subtraction.