1. Electric Current (I)

2. What is Electric Current?
The Flow of Electrons through a wire at a given time.

3. Electric Current
Think about electrons moving through a wire like water moves through a current.

4. Measuring Current
Unit of measurement: Amperes
Symbol (A)

5. 2 Types of Current

6. 2 Types of Current DC: Direct Current (Electrons Run in 1 Direction)
Example: Battery

7. Direct Current
DC (Direct Current) -> Electrons run in one direction

8. Examples
Example of DC: A battery lighting a flashlight.

9. 2 Types of Current
AC: Alternating Current (Electrons run in one direction then move in another)
Example: Outlets

10. Alternating Current
AC (Alternating Current) -> Electrons run in one direction and alternate.

11. Examples of AC
Example of AC: A lamp plugged in an outlet.

12. History of Electric Current: Animal Electricity
Luigi Galvani
During the 1790s, Italian physician Luigi Galvani demonstrated what we now understand to be the electrical basis of nerve impulses when he made frog muscles twitch by jolting them with a spark from an electrostatic machine.

13. Alessandro Volta
He was interested in the new discoveries being made about electricity. From studying earlier experiments he thought that placing dissimilar metals in contact with each other would create electricity. As an experiment, he stacked a fair number of discs of copper, zinc, and cardboard soaked in salt water.
He touched the ends of the pile, and received a significant shock. This was the world's first battery as we know them today. We honor his name today as it is used for the international unit for electric potential, the volt.