An electrode is an electrical conductor used to make contact with a nonmetallic part of a circuit (e.g. a semiconductor, an electrolyte or a vacuum). An anode is an electrode through which electric current flows into a polarized electrical device. The direction of electric current is, by convention, opposite to the direction of electron flow. A cathode is an electrode through which electric current flows out of a polarized electrical device. The direction of electric current is, by convention, opposite to the direction of electron flow—thus, electrons are considered to flow toward the cathode electrode while current flows away from it. An ion is an atom or molecule in which the total number of electrons is not equal to the total number of protons, giving the atom a net positive or negative electrical charge. An electric current is a flow of electric charge. Electric charge flows when there is voltage present across a conductor. Voltage, electrical potential difference, or an electric tension (denoted ∆V and measured in units of electric potential: volts, or joules per coulomb) is the electric potential difference between two points, or the difference in electric potential energy of a unit test charge transported between two points. The electrical resistance of an electrical conductor is the opposition to the passage of an electric current through that conductor; the inverse quantity is electrical conductance, the ease at which an electric current passes.
Posted on: Wed, 14 Aug 2013 06:45:23 +0000
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