In: Physics
can a changeful AC current be measured over time? if so, with what instrument?
If we directly connect ac voltage to a permanent magnet moving coil based ammeter then it will not work because after every half cycle of AC direction of current changes so needle experiences force in opppsite direction and hence due to inertia needle of meter can not respond so quickly and also does not give correct reading.
One suitable meter to measure AC current is hot wire ammeter that measures rms value of current.It is suitable for both ac and dc current but not value of ac current with time.
We can use a Cathode ray oscilloscope which gives the waveform of current/voltage due to which we can find magnitude of AC with time also its frequency,shape,time period,peak to peek voltage/current.