Lecture (L1-4) Charge and Current

Text ## Lecture (L1-4) Charge and Current

 In this lecture, we'll talk about charge and current (which is made of charges that are moving). Voltage (Lecture 1-3) can be thought of as a stack of charges. It's often called "potential", like potential energy. Current is what you get when the charges move (it's like kinetic energy). It's not surprising that voltage and current are related, though they are not the same.

Want to "see" current? Plug a battery into a potato using copper wires. In not very long, you should start to see some bubbles on one side of the potato. Leave it overnight. On the other side, you should see a green spot. This is caused by the copper atoms being pushed from the wire into the potato. Which way is the current flowing?  (Thank you to UofU student, Yusaf Alhawiti, for this picture.)