Question

Explain how a battery produces a current in a wire.

Please show all work!

Answer 1

An electric current, which is a flow of charge, occurs when there is a potential difference. For a current to flow also requires a complete circuit, which means the flowing charge has to be able to get back to where it starts. Current (I) is measured in amperes (A), and is the amount of charge flowing per second.

When current flows through wires in a circuit, the moving charges are electrons. For historical reasons, however, when analyzing circuits the direction of the current is taken to be the direction of the flow of positive charge, opposite to the direction the electrons go. We can blame Benjamin Franklin for this. It amounts to the same thing, because the flow of positive charge in one direction is equivalent to the flow of negative charge in the opposite direction.

When a battery or power supply sets up a difference in potential between two parts of a wire, an electric field is created and the electrons respond to that field. In a current-carrying conductor, however, the electrons do not all flow in the same direction. In fact, even when there is no potential difference (and therefore no field), the electrons are moving around randomly. This random motion continues when there is a field, but the field superimposes onto this random motion a small net velocity, the drift velocity. Because electrons are negative charges, the direction of the drift velocity is opposite to the electric field.