Timeline for Why does current density have a direction and not current?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
15 events
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| Dec 10, 2018 at 19:22 | answer | added | Zhi Han | timeline score: 2 | |
| Jul 27, 2018 at 8:24 | history | edited | Steeven | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Jul 27, 2018 at 8:23 | vote | accept | Steeven | ||
| Apr 24, 2018 at 8:45 | comment | added | crobar | Current is a measure of the total charge passing through a surface, in a direction normal to that surface at every point on the surface. It has no direction vector for the same reason basketball scores do not have a direction vector, you're just counting stuff up. | |
| Jul 2, 2017 at 19:40 | answer | added | tparker | timeline score: 4 | |
| Apr 13, 2017 at 12:39 | history | edited | CommunityBot |
replaced http://physics.stackexchange.com/ with https://physics.stackexchange.com/
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| Oct 9, 2015 at 6:20 | answer | added | aayyachi | timeline score: 10 | |
| Mar 26, 2015 at 22:08 | answer | added | image357 | timeline score: 4 | |
| Mar 26, 2015 at 21:30 | answer | added | Ivan Burbano | timeline score: 0 | |
| Jan 2, 2015 at 20:18 | comment | added | honeste_vivere | @Steeven - Current does have a magnitude and direction. However, it is usually just expressed as a scalar due to the 1D nature of simple "wire problems," as explained by Daniel. Current is a type of flux and thus, satisfies the continuity equation whether you are using linear current I, surface current density $\boldsymbol{\kappa}$, or volume current density $\mathbf{J}$. | |
| Jan 2, 2015 at 19:00 | comment | added | user42076 | The current is a scalar because the charge Q is a scalar - like mass for example. So you're asking how much of this scalar quantity is flowing through a wire per time. Since there is no vector quantity in the question, the answer, i.e. the current I, is also a scalar quantity. (hmm essentially I said the same as danielsank but with different wording ... maybe you get it now. ^^ ) | |
| Jan 2, 2015 at 18:55 | answer | added | AlanZ2223 | timeline score: 1 | |
| Jan 2, 2015 at 18:33 | history | edited | DanielSank |
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| Jan 2, 2015 at 18:31 | comment | added | DanielSank | If I'm studying a circuit and I want to know how much charge is flowing through a wire I don't need a vector. The wire is effectively one-dimensional, so the + and - sign of $I$ tells me all the direction information I need to know. That's really it. | |
| Jan 2, 2015 at 18:25 | history | asked | Steeven | CC BY-SA 3.0 |