Re: If current is a fundamental quantity, why is it defined using force forc

Patrick, 

You are perfectly right to say that the electric current can be defined as 
the "electric charge flow". 

But the fact is that this electric current is not used as the fundamental 
quantity referring to the electric phenomena. But to really explain what is 
exactly electricity, it is a real nightmare for everybody! Indeed  you will 
find so many different definitions for the single word "electricity" that 
it is really tough to explain! 

So we should never ask "WHAT IS ELECTRICITY". Instead, discard the word 
"electricity" and use the correct names for all the separate 
phenomena.(e.g. what is electric charge, or what is electrical energy).

So, to know what is the fundamental quantity of electricity, we should know 
what is exactly electricity. As I said, it is not that simple!

To give you a simple answer to your question, I could say that basically, 
when scientists (and not your dictionnary or your electricity 
compagny!) talk about electricity, they use the SI unit Coulomb (C) in 
order to measure the electric charge. 1 Ampere (A) is in fact equivalent to 
1 Coulomb per second (we use the second beause the current is the FLOW of 
electric charge).

If you want a longer and deeper answer to your question, you should go 
through the Mad scientist Archives. You will find there good pages about 
the different definitions of the world "ELECTRICITY" and a lot of different 
stuffs about that.

These are some shortcuts I used to answer your question:
 one
 two
 three

I hope I have been helpfull. Keep being interrestd in science and remain 
curious ;O)

Yan G. Applied Chemistry @ Napier University, Edinburgh-UK
ranx003@hotmail.com