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Amperes (amps)

If volts are the force pushing electrons throught metal, amperes or amps for short is the amount of current flowing in a circuit. The more current flowing, the higher the amps.

This flow of electrical current develops when electrons are forced from one atom to another.  Current is a measure of the rate of electron flow through a material. Electrical current is measured in units of amperes or "amps" for short.

Thinking of electricity as like water, and a wire as like a hose is a popular analogy. How would you measure the water coming out of the hose?

There are two ways:

The pressure pushing the water (voltage)
The amount of water that flows through the hose every second (Amps)


The latter would be the most comparable to the measure of amps running through a cable. 

A multimeter can be used to test how many amps are flowing through a wire at a given time.


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