# Ampere

For other uses, see Ampère.
Ampere
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.
Unit information
Unit system SI base unit
Unit of Electric current
Symbol A
Named after André-Marie Ampère

The ampere ( SI unit symbol: A), often shortened to "amp", [1] is the SI unit of electric current [2] [3] ( dimension symbol: I) [4] and is one of the seven [5] SI base units. It is named after André-Marie Ampère (1775–1836), French mathematician and physicist, considered the father of electrodynamics.

The ampere is equivalent to one coulomb (roughly 6.242×1018 times the elementary charge) per second. [6] Amperes are used to express flow rate of electric charge. For any point experiencing a current, if the number of charged particles passing through it — or the charge on the particles passing through it — is increased, the amperes of current at that point will proportionately increase.

The ampere should not be confused with the coulomb (also called "ampere-second") or the ampere hour (A⋅h). The ampere is a unit of current, the amount of charge transiting per unit time, and the coulomb is a unit of charge. When SI units are used, constant, instantaneous and average current are expressed in amperes (as in "the charging current is 1.2 A") and the charge accumulated, or passed through a circuit over a period of time is expressed in coulombs (as in "the battery charge is 30000 C"). The relation of the ampere (C/s) to the coulomb is the same as that of the watt (J/s) to the joule.

## Definition

Illustration of the definition of the ampere unit

Ampère's force law [7] [8] states that there is an attractive or repulsive force between two parallel wires carrying an electric current. This force is used in the formal definition of the ampere, which states that the ampere is the constant current that will produce an attractive force of 2 × 10−7 newtons per metre of length between two straight, parallel conductors of infinite length and negligible circular cross section placed one metre apart in a vacuum. [2] [9]

The SI unit of charge, the coulomb, "is the quantity of electricity carried in 1 second by a current of 1 ampere". [10] Conversely, a current of one ampere is one coulomb of charge going past a given point per second:

${\displaystyle {\rm {1\ A=1{\tfrac {C}{s}}.}}}$

In general, charge Q is determined by steady current I flowing for a time t as Q = It.