The flow of electricity may be compared with the flow of water in a pipe to understand the action of electric current.

As the quantity of water flowing at any section of the pipe in a given is time equal to the product of the rate of water flowing there and time, similarly the quantity of electricity passing through any section of the conductor in a given time is equal to the product of rate of movement of electrons and time. The rate of movement of electrons is known as electric current.

i.e. electric current = Rate of flow of electrons
                           = Quantity of electricity passed during a given time
                                                           Time

As liter is the unit for measurement of quantity of water similarly coulomb is the practical as well as m.k.s. unit for measurement of quantity of electricity. One coulomb is approximately equal to 628 x 10¹⁶ electrons.

Since current is the rate of flow of electricity through a conductor and coulomb is the unit of quantity of electricity, therefore the current may be specified in coulombs per second. In practices the term coulomb per seconds is seldom used, a shorter term ampere is used instead.

Ampere is the practical as well as S.I. unit of electric current and on the basis of the force acting on two parallel current carting conductors, ampere may be destined as follows:

The International Ampere is slightly less than practical unit of current, (i.e. ampere and is defined as the current which when passed through a solution of silver nitrate (AgNO₃) as said in specifications, will deposit silver at the rate of 0.00111800 grams per second.

1 International Ampere = 0.999835 Absolute Ampere.

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