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What Is DC Current?

What Is DC Current?

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Direct current (DC) is the unidirectional flow of an electric charge. An electrochemical cellis a prime example of DC power. Direct current may flow through a conductor such as a wire, but can also flow through semiconductors, insulators, or even through a vacuum as in electron or ion beams. The electric current flows in a constant direction, distinguishing it from alternating current (AC). A term formerly used for this type of current was galvanic current.

The abbreviations AC and DC are often used to mean simply alternating and direct, as when they modify current or voltage.

Direct current may be converted from an alternating current supply by use of a rectifier, which contains electronic elements (usually) or electromechanical elements (historically) that allow current to flow only in one direction. Direct current may be converted into alternating current via an inverter.

Direct current has many uses, from the charging of batteries to large power supplies for electronic systems, motors, and more. Very large quantities of electrical energy provided via direct-current are used in smelting of aluminum and other electrochemical processes. It is also used for some railways, especially in urban areas. High-voltage direct current is used to transmit large amounts of power from remote generation sites or to interconnect alternating current power grids.

Direct current was produced in 1800 by Italian physicist Alessandro Volta's battery, his Voltaic pile.[5] The nature of how current flowed was not yet understood. French physicist André-Marie Ampère conjectured that current travelled in one direction from positive to negative.[6] When French instrument maker Hippolyte Pixii built the first dynamo electric generator in 1832, he found that as the magnet used passed the loops of wire each half turn, it caused the flow of electricity to reverse, generating an alternating current.[7] At Ampère's suggestion, Pixii later added a commutator, a type of "switch" where contacts on the shaft work with "brush" contacts to produce direct current.

The late 1870s and early 1880s saw electricity starting to be generated at power stations. These were initially set up to power arc lighting (a popular type of street lighting) running on very high voltage (usually higher than 3000 volt) direct current or alternating current.[8] This was followed by the wide spread use of low voltage direct current for indoor electric lighting in business and homes after inventor Thomas Edison launched his incandescent bulb based electric "utility" in 1882. Because of the significant advantages of alternating current over direct current in using transformers to raise and lower voltages to allow much longer transmission distances, direct current was replaced over the next few decades by alternating current in power delivery. In the mid-1950s, high-voltage direct current transmission was developed, and is now an option instead of long-distance high voltage alternating current systems. For long distance underseas cables (e.g. between countries, such as NorNed), this DC option is the only technically feasible option. For applications requiring direct current, such as third rail power systems, alternating current is distributed to a substation, which utilizes a rectifier to convert the power to direct current.

What uses DC current?


Uses. Direct current is used in any electronic device with a battery for a power source. It is also used to charge batteries, so rechargeable devices like laptops and cell phones come with an AC adapter that converts alternatingcurrent to direct current.

What is the voltage of DC current?


Batteries or power supplies are mostly used to produce a steady D.C. (direct current) voltagesource such as 5v, 12v, 24v etc in electronic circuits and systems. While A.C. (alternatingcurrent) voltage sources are available for domestic house and industrial power and lighting as well as power transmission.

Why DC current is not used in homes?


Large transformers are used to run transmission lines at high voltages in order to keep losses to a minimum. But high voltage is dangerous, particularly to life, so bringing it into a house would not be an acceptable risk. ... DC arcs do not "quench" as easily (becausevoltage does not go through zero).

Can DC current kill you?


DC can shock you as well. It's just that morecurrent is required in case of DC to feel the shock than that required for ac. This is due to the fact that the current flowing through our body depends on four factors. ... Above 25-30mA, the current flow through our body is dangerous.


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