Question

The compressor on an air conditioner draws 66.1 a when it starts up. the start-up time is about 0.388 s. how much charge passes a cross-sectional area of the circuit in this time? answer in units of c

Answer 1

The current intensity is defined as the amount of charge flowing through a certain point of a wire divided by the time interval:

`I= (Q)/(\Delta t)`
where Q is the charge and
`\Delta t` is the time. Re-arranging the formula, we have

`Q=I \Delta t`

for the compressor in our problem, the intensity of current is I=66.1 A, while the time is
`\Delta t= 0.388 s`, so the amount of charge that crosses a certain point of the circuit during this time is

`Q=I \Delta t=(66.1 A)(0.388 s)=25.65 C`