# What is the electrically charged particle that consists of 1 coulomb?

1. Dec 22, 2004

### DB

When it is said, that 1 coulomb is the amount of electric charge carried by a current of one Ampere for 1 second, and that 1 coulomb is 6.24e18 times the charge of an electron, does it mean that 1 coulomb is 6.24e18 electrons? what is the electrically charged particle that consists of 1 coulomb?

Thnx

2. Dec 22, 2004

### krab

1 coulomb is a charge quantity, not a particle quantity. 6.24E18 electrons have 1 coulomb total charge (actually, that's -1 C). So do that many anti-protons. But that many anti-protons is roughly 1800 times more mass than that many electrons. Charge is a characteristic of particles; mass is another characteristic; magnetic moment is yet another.

3. Dec 23, 2004

### dextercioby

1 coulomb is the charge of 6.24e18 protons.-1 coulomb is the charge of 6.24e18 electrons,and that's only because the two particles have different sign to their charges.This expression "1 coulomb is 6.24e18 electrons" is not correct,as "particle" and "coulomb" are distinct notions.You could have said:
"-1 Coulomb is the charge of 6.24e18 electrons".
Particles (at least elementary particles,nuclei,ions) have very small charges.You can roughly say that a plasma with 6.24e18 ions electricall charged "+1e" has the charge of one coulomb.But the trick is that this plasma cannot contain only positive charged parictiles.It has to have electrons and negative charges,so the effective charge is much less that 1 coulomb.For a totally ionized plasma,it should be zero.

Daniel.