Flow of charge?

[petesmc]

If i had a wire with a flow of 6.3x10^36 electrons flowing in a wire per second, what would the current be?

 

[Comcat]

approximately 1 x 10^18 amps

 

[windozeuser]

Wouldn't it be 1161 mA ?

 

[petesmc]

approximately 1 x 10^18 amps

Am i right in assuming you are using I = n*e/t where n is the number of electrons and e is the charge on an electron? I thought it was this too, just the number seems extraordinarily high!

 

[windozeuser]

well 1 Amp of current is 6.25*10^18 electrons flowing at a specific point in a conductor in one sec. Otherwise known as a coulomb of charge.

 

[fingaz]

I thought it was 6.28*10^18 electrons??? maybe I'm wrong???
But you can't end up with a number that low (1161mA) because 6.3*10^36 = 6300000000000000000000000000000000000

and one coulomb is 6.28*10^18 = 6280000000000000000

^ means "to the power of" look up "exponentiation"

 

[windozeuser]

6.3x10^36 electrons / 6.25*10^18 = 1 amp with 1.008*10^18 electrons left for a remainder

the 1.008*10^18 electrons will be less than an amp of current,

1.008*10^18/6.25*10^18 = 0.16128 amps

hence, 1161 mA

Anyone please correct me if I'm wrong

1A = 6.25*10^18 electrons per second A = Q/T

 

[fingaz]

It doesn't work that way. . . 6.3*10^36 = 6,300,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
This means 6.3 multiplied by 10 36 times (6.3*10*10*10*10*10 etc. etc. etc.) so you can't just take 18 off the 36. . .

and one coulomb is definitely 6.28*10^18 = 6,280,000,000,000,000,000
(see here) **broken link removed**

Deviding this 6,280,000,000,000,000,000 By this 6,300,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 DOES NOT leave less than one amp.
Like I said, you need to look up the meaning of EXPONENTIATION. You can't just take away bits of the equation before you've calculated it! The 'exponent' determines the position of the decimal point, and therefore the final value of the number.

eg. 6*10^3 = 6000 = 6 with 3 zero's before the decimal point. You have to calculate the equation in the order in which it is written (except in the case of parantheses, which should be calculated first)

so 6.3*10^36 means you must calculate this [6,300,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000], (before you move on to the next part if the equation) DEVIDED BY 6.28*10^18 [628,000,000,000,000,000] which DOES NOT EQUAL 1 Amp with 1.008*10^18 electrons left for a remainder

It does in fact equal 1.0031847^18 AMPS of current [1,003,184,700,000,000,000] APPROXIMATELY

 

[windozeuser]

Really well...

(2.25 x 10^22 electrons) / (6.25 x 10^18 electrons per second) =

(2.25 / 6.25) x (10^22 / 10^18) = 3.6 x 10^3 or 3600

 

[fingaz]

SCRAP MY LAST POST. . . I'VE JUST SEEN WHERE YOUR CALCULATION IS WRONG. . .

what you did is 6.3*10^36 / 6.25*10^18 = 1.008^18

This indicates the number of AMPS, NOT the remainder after taking away one amp.
You divided the TOTAL NUMBER of electrons by the NUMBER OF ELECTRONS IN ONE AMP, to get the TOTAL NUMBER OF AMPS.

Well, enough of that. . . It had me pulling out what bit of hair I got left!

Though I still maintain it 6.28*10^18 electrons

 

[windozeuser]

ah well that's one hell of a current

 

[Comcat]

Am i right in assuming you are using I = n*e/t where n is the number of electrons and e is the charge on an electron? I thought it was this too, just the number seems extraordinarily high!

If 1 amp = 1 coulomb/sec
and
1 coulomb = approx. 6.24 x10^18 electrons.

therefore

6.3x10^36 / 6.24x10^18 = 1.0096x10^18 coulombs/sec
or
1.0096 x 10^18 amps

 

[Hero999]

I'm glad to see you've all done his coursework for him!

 

[petesmc]

I'm glad to see you've all done his coursework for him!

Not in any way related to coursework - i wish my coursework were that easy. I just needed confirmation of the value i was receiving from a fairly random calculation as obviously it's incredibly large.