Electric Current Converter

About Electric Current Conversion

Electric current is the rate of flow of electric charge past a point or region. It is measured in coulombs per second, which is equal to one ampere – the SI base unit of electric current. Different systems of electrical units use different base units for current, leading to the variety of units that can be converted using this tool.

Common Electric Current Conversions

• 1 ampere (A) = 1,000 milliamperes (mA)
• 1 ampere (A) = 1,000,000 microamperes (μA)
• 1 ampere (A) = 1,000,000,000 nanoamperes (nA)
• 1 kiloampere (kA) = 1,000 amperes (A)
• 1 ampere (A) = 0.1 abampere (abA) or electromagnetic unit per second (emu/s)
• 1 ampere (A) = 2.998 × 10⁹ statamperes (statA) or electrostatic units per second (esu/s)
• 1 ampere (A) = 6.241 × 10¹⁸ elementary charges per second (e/s)
• 1 coulomb per second (C/s) = 1 ampere (A)

Understanding Electric Current

Electric current is the movement of electric charge carriers, such as electrons in a metal wire, ions in an electrolyte, or both. By convention, the direction of electric current is considered as the movement of positive charges, even though in many conductors (like metals) the actual charge carriers are negatively charged electrons moving in the opposite direction.

The SI unit of electric current is the ampere, defined as the flow of 1 coulomb of electric charge per second:

1 A = 1 C/s

Since 2019, the ampere has been redefined in terms of the elementary charge (e) and is now defined as a flow of exactly 6.241509074 × 10¹⁸ elementary charges per second.

Types of Electric Current Units

Electric current units can be categorized into several systems:

• SI units: Ampere (A) and metric prefixes (kA, mA, μA, nA, pA)
• CGS electrostatic system: Statampere (statA) or electrostatic unit per second (esu/s)
• CGS electromagnetic system: Abampere (abA) or electromagnetic unit per second (emu/s)
• Fundamental units: Elementary charge per second (e/s), representing the flow of individual charged particles

Applications of Electric Current Measurement

Electric current measurements are essential in many fields:

• Electrical engineering (circuit design, power transmission)
• Electronics (device specifications, signal processing)
• Power generation and distribution (load balancing, safety)
• Medicine (bioelectrical signals, treatments like electrotherapy)
• Research and laboratory work (precise instrumentation)
• Industrial processes (monitoring, automation)
• Household applications (appliance ratings, safety mechanisms)

Typical Current Values in Real-World Applications

• Lightning strike peak current: up to 200 kA
• Electric arc furnace: 10-100 kA
• Home main circuit breaker: 100-200 A
• Electric stove element: 30-40 A
• Household lamp: 0.5-1 A
• USB device charging: 0.5-2.0 A
• LED indicator: 10-20 mA
• Neural signals in the human body: 1-100 nA
• Single electron device: picoampere range

Our electric current converter provides accurate conversions between all these units, making it easy to translate between different measurement systems for engineering calculations, electronics design, and educational purposes.