In order for something to be conductive?

[LogicalAcid]

There has to be flow of charge, right? And that is current? Something can have very high voltage, which is a lot of electric charge (notice the question marks), but if it has no current, the charge won't flow into something else. This is what confuses me, first of all, how does electric charge flow? I know every charged particle has a charge, and proto has a plus one charge, an electron has a minus one charge. But how does electric charge move, what exactly has to happen to make charges move?

 

[mender]

It's like a river. Even though there is flow, the amount (water level in the river) stays the same at any given position.

 

[Dr Lots-o'watts]

If you bunch up a lot of negative charges together, they don't like it because they repulse each other and they diffuse. So if they have some way to flow away from each other, they do. Then you have a current.

 

[Feldoh]

I think it should also be mentioned that the current is also dependent on the material through which you are observing a current.

Typically when you run a current through a wire it is a conductor. In materials that are conductors there are electrons that are only loosely bound to the nucleus of any given atom. What this means is that the protons attractive force in a conductor is not very strong in relation to these essentially "free" electrons.

 

[pmacias]

Yes, in order for something to be conductive, there must be a flow of charge. This flow of charge is what we refer to as electric current. Voltage, or electric potential difference, is a measure of the potential energy of the charges in a circuit. However, in order for the charges to actually move and create a current, there must be a complete circuit for the charges to flow through. This circuit can be created by connecting conductive materials, such as wires, to a voltage source.

Electric charge can move through a conductor, such as a wire, due to the presence of free electrons. These free electrons are able to move through the material and carry the charge with them. When a voltage is applied, the electric field created by the source pushes the free electrons in the direction of the positive terminal, creating a flow of charge or current.

In summary, for electric charge to flow and create a current, there must be a complete circuit, conductive materials, and a voltage source. The movement of charge is facilitated by the presence of free electrons in the conductor and the electric field created by the voltage source.