the.com/amp
the unit that decides whether electrons gently flow or violently rearrange your day
means A unit of electric current (short for ampere), measuring how much charge flows past a point each second.
from A clipping of 'ampere,' which honors André-Marie Ampère, the early-19th-century French physicist who pinned down the mathematics of how currents and magnetism shove each other around. His surname became the SI unit; everyday speech then sawed it down to the brisk one-syllable 'amp.' (The same shortening also serves 'amplifier,' a separate guitar-world cousin.)
- named for
- André-Marie Ampère, founding father of electromagnetism
- the killer
- current, not voltage, stops your heart
- defined by
- redefined in 2019 via the electron's exact charge
- tiny terror
- around 0.1 amp through the chest is lethal
- big numbers
- a lightning bolt carries roughly 30,000 amps