electrical current?

It is the flow of electrons through a medium. Electrons will flow when it is energetically favorable for them to do so. For instance, a battery works by creating a potential difference (voltage) between two ends of a circuit. Electrons flow from the area of high potential to the area of low potential.

Conductors, such as metals, are materials in which electrons can move freely, so very little potential difference is needed to create a current. Semiconductors have a certain threshhold voltage that must be reached before electrons will flow. Insulators do not allow electrons to flow, or at least not without massive voltages.

Just think about some ammount of water kept in a jar at a height. The jar has a pipeline coming out of it which has a tap at the end. If tahe tap is closed then there is no water flow through the pipeline. If you open it slightly water comes out dropwise and the more you go on openning more is the flow.

Now just convert the following

water = electrons

pipeline = conductor

tap = resistance

water flow through the pipe = current through the conductor

Electrons flow from positions of higher free electron concentration towards lower electron concentrations. The two positions can only be seperated if and only if the space in betwwen them is seperated by a highly resistive substance. If the resistance decreases then there is flow of electrons from higher to lower concentrations. This flow is called electric current.

The current is the amount of electricity that is actually flowing. I had a teacher explain it to me this way once:

If you think of electricity as a waterfall, the voltage would be height of the falls, and the current would be the water that is actually going over. If you have a very high waterfall, but build a dam at the top to stop the water, you would have high voltage, but zero current.

The flow of electrons through a material in other words Electric current is the flow of electric charge. Natural examples include lightning and the solar wind, the source of the polar aurora. The most familiar artificial form of electric current is the flow of conduction electrons in metal wires, such as the overhead power lines that deliver electrical energy across long distances and the smaller wires within electrical and electronic equipment. In electronics, other forms of electric current include the flow of electrons through resistors or through the vacuum in a vacuum tube, the flow of ions inside a battery, and the flow of holes within a semiconductor.

Electric current(I) is the rate of flow of charge(C).

1 electron has a charge of -1.6 x 10^-19 Coloumb

So 6.25 x 10^18 electrons carry 1 Coloumb charge.

So when Q charge flows through the cross section of a conductor in time t, Current(I) = Q/t

In simple terms, the flow of charge in a definite direction constitutes the electric current and the time rate of flow of charge through any cross-section of a conductor is the measure of current i.e

I=q\t where,I=Electric current

q=Total charge flowing

t=Time taken

current is simply flow of particles from one place to another. In terms of electricity it is the flow of charged particles(either + or -)from one point to other(usually electrons).a charge particle moves when it is acting under some external electric field or is placed between the path of 2 unequal potentials creating potential difference(V)measured in volts between the paths.Now, current is charge flowing per unit time. suppose a wire whose one end is connected to the +ve terminal of a battery & other to the -ve (charge will start flowing),assume a small section at any pt. on the wire.current will tell us how much charge is flowing through that section in 1 second.

traveling at the speed of light along the wires is a interesting tidbit of energy called CURRENT. The movement of energy pushed by VOLTS. Only impeded in its travel by the wire or other item in its path, RESISTANCE. You have for example in the wall outlet, VOLTAGE. the lamp on the table needs VOLTAGE to light. to get the voltage from outlet to lamp you need a wire. connect the wire and voltage zips along to lamp (CURRENT). if the switch is on, the current travels thru the bulb (RESISTANCE)to the other side and back to its happy little home - the outlet. If the switch is off the voltage zips along the wire and stops at the lamp switch. This happens at the speed of light and since it goes from outlet to lamp switch that fast no current is in the wire. The garden hose - water at the bib (voltage)open bib or connect hose and water fills hose to nozzle then stops. (slower than speed of light so you notice this) the nozzle is the switch, open nozzle and water flows (current)

Here's an analogy:

Electricity is to a wire as water is to a hose. Current is the measure of how many electrons there are, voltage measures the amount of force they have.

you can get your answer here..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_current