What is the difference between an ampere and a coulomb?

Answer 1

A ampere is a measure of the flow rate of electricity a coulomb is an amount of electricity. So 1 ampere is a flow of electricity at the rate of 1 coulomb per second.

Answer

Strictly speaking, as the ampere is an SI base unit whereas a coulomb is a derived unit, it is more accurate to say that 'a coulomb is an ampere second (A.s)'.

With reference to the first answer, the ampere is the SI unit for electric current (not the 'flow rate of electricity', which is meaningless), and the coulomb is the SI unit for electric charge (not the 'amount of electricity'). 'Electricity' isn't a quantity, so it cannot be measured.

Answer 2

current is a flow of electrons when 6 240 000 000 000 000 000 electrons flow in one second a current of one ampere 'A' is said to flow. This quantity of electrons is called a coloumb (C) and is the unit used to measure electrical charge. 1 coulomb - 6.24 x 10 (to the) 18 electrons. Therefore 1 coulomb= 1 ampere per second. The quantity of electrical charge q = i x t coulombs

Links are provided to related questions and to the Wikipedia post on the ampere.

Answer 3

A coulomb per second is equivalent to a current of one ampere. However, it's important to understand that an ampere isn't defined as a 'coulomb per second', rather it's an SI base unit defined in terms of the force between two, parallel, current-carrying conductors.

Because it's much easier to measure current than electric charge, the coulomb is a derived unit, defined as 'an ampere second'.

Answer 4

A coulomb is basically a huge bucket of electrons (6.2 x 1018 electrons). It is an amount of electrons (or basic charges, though we normally speak in terms of electrons). It should be noted that coulombs are the unit of charge. Electrons all carry the same amount of charge and 6.2 x 1018 electrons make up a a coulomb of charge.

Answer 5

Not really. But this answer requires a little explanation. While the ampere is 'equivalent' to a coulomb per second, it is not 'defined' in this way because an ampere is an SI base unit while the coulomb is a derived unit (derived units are combinations of base units). The ampere is actually defined in terms of the force between current-carrying conductors, and the coulomb is then defined in terms of the ampere (= ampere second).

Answer 6

The ampere is defined as 'the constant current that, if maintained in two straight parallel conductors of infinite length and negligible cross-sectional area and placed one metre apart in a vacuum, would produce between them a force equal to 2 × 10-7 newtons per unit length'.

So, as you can see, the ampere is defined in terms of newtons and metres.

Answer 7

Current(I) = Charge(Q)/time(t) of flow

In S.I. units coulomb is unit of charge and ampere is unit of current

so 1 coulomb per second= 1 ampere

Answer 8

1 coulomb per second = 1 ampere