Question

Name any two effects of electric current.

Answer 1

Hint: We witness many effects of electric current in everyday life. We can state some of them with the proper reason. We know that the light bulb gets heated after the continuous use for a longer time. The electric current passes through the batteries to undergo electrolysis.

Complete answer:
We know that the current is defined as the rate of flow of electric charges per unit time in a conductor. It is measured in units of amperes. We know the device used to measure the electric current is ammeter.When the current flows through a conducting wire, we can see two effects: Heating effect (Joule’s law of heating) and induced magnetic field. We now explain these two effects in brief as follows,

1) Heating effect of electric current: We observe that when the light bulb of high power rating is kept ON for a longer time, the light bulb gets heated. This is due to production of heat in the tungsten rod of the light bulb due to current flowing through it. The heat produced in the wire of resistance R due to current flowing through it is expressed as,
\[H = {I^2}Rt\]
Here, I is the current and t is the time.

2) Magnetic effect of electric current: We know that when the current passes through a conductor, the magnetic field produces along with it a circular path around the conductor. The direction of the magnetic field can be determined using Right-hand thumb rule.

Note:Students can also state the effect of current passing through electrolytic solutions. When the current passes through such a solution, it causes the electrolysis of the solution. If you know the power rating of the electric appliances such as light bulbs, you can check the heat produced in the light bulb using the relation, \[H = Pt\], where, P is the power.