coulomb unit
NAME: coulomb
ALTERNATIVE NAME/S: none
DETAILS:
Named for the French physicist Charles-Augustin de Coulomb*, the coulomb is the Standard International unit of electric charge and a term encountered by students in physics classes. Part of the metric system, the coulomb measures the amount of electricity transported through a cross section of an electric circuit in one second when the current has a value of one ampere. (The ampere is the unit of rate or strength of flow of the current.) One coulomb is equivalent to an electrical charge of 6.24 x 1018 electrons.
Coulomb's name also appears elsewhere in the subject of electrostatics. Coulomb force is the attraction or repulsion that occurs between particles or objects because of their electric charge. The magnitude of the electric force between two such bodies can be calculated using an equation called Coulomb's Law.
ONELINER: The coulomb
OTHER CONNECTIONS: None
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
"Coulomb." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2004. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
22 Feb. 2004 <http://search.eb.com/eb/article?eu=26986>.
"Coulomb Force." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2004. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
22 Feb. 2004 <http://search.eb.com/eb/article?eu=26988>.