What are Amps?

Amps are a unit to measure electrical currents. They are one of the seven SI base units, and they are actually named after Andre-Marie Ampere.

This was a French physicist and mathematician who is considered by many to be the father of electrodynamics. The real name for the amp is the Ampere, though it is almost always shortened to 'amp' for practical use.

Technically, the amp is measured by measuring the amount of electronic charge passing a point per unit time. So, in other technical words, about 6.242x10 to the eighteenth power electrons passing a point each second would constitute one amp.

The amp used to be defined a different way. It used to be known as one tenth of the CGS system electromagnetic unit of current. This is the amount of electrical current that is needed to generate two dynes per CM length between two separate wires which lie one centimeter apart.

The amp is used to measure a great many things in electronics, and is frequently utilized in converting watts, amps and volts. For instance, some electronics will be given an ampere rating, which tells you about the current going through it when you turn it on.

It has been discussed that the definition of the amp might change again in the future. There are those who say that the amp should be defined in terms of the rate of flow of elementary charges instead. Back in 2005, the International Committee for Weights and Measures agreed to study this change, which is supposed to be discussed again in 2011. Experiments are said to be going on that would test the reliability and accuracy of such a change.

Amps are used every day by electronic engineers, and provide a clear and accurate way to write out equations related to electronics and current.