How many DC amps are in an AC amp?

Answer 1

Watts in AC are the same as watts in DC.

A watt is a unit of energy transfer, in units of joules per second. You calculate watts by multiplying volts (joules per coulomb) by amperes (coulombs per second).

While watts are still watts, AC or DC, the calculation becomes more complex in AC for multiple reasons. Current is often not in phase with voltage due to capacitive or inductive reactance. This leads to additional terminology such as vars (volt-amps-reactive) and power factor (ratio of true vs apparent power). Current is often not continuous over the entire AC cycle, making the voltage or current (and thus the power) cycle non-sinusoidal. (In a power supply, for instance, current flows only when the input AC voltage is above the rectifier's forward breakdown voltage, and this only occurs as a pulse in the cycle when the filter capacitor needs to be recharged.)

Answer 2

In an AC circuit, the relationship between DC amps and AC amps depends on the type of load (resistive, inductive, capacitive). For a purely resistive load, the RMS (root mean square) value of AC amps is equal to the DC amps. However, for inductive or capacitive loads, the relationship involves factors like power factor and impedance.

Answer 3

AC = Alternating Current (Power Plants provide AC for public use) The voltage varies from positive to negative in a sine wave. AC is used because Transformers do not work on DC. (See "The War of the Currents".) DC = Direct Current (Batteries, low voltage electronics, etc) The Current is directly fed from the source to the load (Whatever you're using) with no change in voltage. A volt is a volt, an amp is an amp. To understand where AC and DC come in in these readings, you need to understand what the voltage is doing on an AC line. 1 VDC = 1 volt. DC is constant, it doesn't change. a 12VDC supply will (ideally) always put put 12V. With DC 1 ADC is usually just one amp. With a resistive load, it doesn't change as V = IR. (No time variable.) This isn't always true, but for most DC loads it is. (Your car headlight will draw a constant current when warm. Your car stereo will not.) The voltage on an AC line is usually * Vout = Vmax * sin(Freq * 2 * pi * t) where * Vout is the voltage on the line * Vmax is the maximum voltage (VAC * sqrt(2), about 170V for US 120V service) * Freq is the line frequency in Hz * t is time in seconds. So, for US 120VAC service: * Vout(t) = 170 volts * sin(60 * 2 * pi * t) Whereas for your 12VDC car battery * Vout(t) = 12 volts You can see for the AC and DC formulas there is nothing special. Both express the output in the exact same units: volts. A problem with AC is that it is always changing so it is hard to deal with. That's where VAC comes in. 1 VAC is 1 Vrms, or one volt root-mean-squared. So, one AAC is one Arms. Root mean squared is not an electrical formula per se, but a statistical formula. Since the value under test is in flux, you measure it at an interval, square the readings, sum them, and take the square root. In theory you use an infinite number of points and some calculus to calculate your values. In real time you use a "true RMS" meter capable of taking thousands of measurements a second and calculating the answers based on them. Let's say you have a normal 60W light bulb. If you give it 120VAC, it is going to use 60W of power. If you give it 120VDC, it will also use 60W of power. To the load the energy supplied is the same for 1VAC and 1VDC. So, at 120VAC the load will draw 0.5Arms, just as it will draw 0.5A from 120VDC. Understand?

Answer 4

The short answer is: the same if measured as amps RMS. Since AC current or voltage literally cycles between positive and negative, a current or voltage measurement value changes from moment to moment from its peak positive to its peak negative value and back again. The most common terms used in measuring voltage or current are peak, peak to peak, and RMS. Peak voltage or current is the maximum either positive or negative value while peak to peak is double peak values. RMS stands for Root Mean Square, a scary term but it can be thought of as a DC equivalent. An RMS voltage or current is peak voltage divided by the square root of two, or approximately 1.414.

Most AC voltage or current values are stated in RMS, here's an example. Normal United States house voltage is 120 volts AC RMS. This means the voltage actually swings from nearly 170 volts positive to 170 volts negative, or 340 volts peak to peak! A 100 watt, 120 volt light bulb draws just under one amp of current, 0.8333 amps RMS. You could use a 120 volt DC power source to run the same 100 watt bulb and it would still use 0.8333 DC amps.

Peak and peak to peak voltage and current measurements are important when dealing with electrical parts or component limitations. A part rated for 120 volts RMS can actually handle an instantaneous voltage of nearly 170 volts peak for example.

Answer 5

This simple answer is no.

RESISTANCE depends upon the length, cross-sectional area, and resistivity of a conductor. In DC circuits, current is evenly-distributed across the whole cross-section of the conductor. But, in AC circuits, the current tends to flow towards the surface. This is called the 'skin effect', and is partly due to electromagnetic induction within the conductor caused by that AC current, and this effect increases with frequency. The 'skin effect' acts to reduce the effective cross-sectional area of the conductor which, in turn, acts to increase its resistance. At normal mains' frequencies, i.e. 50/60 Hz, the skin effect is not great, but it is enough to raise the resistance of the conductor compared to its resistance to a DC current.

'AC RESISTANCE', then, is the elevated resistance (not impedance, not reactance) of a conductor due to the flow of an AC current, compared with its resistance to a DC current.

(At very high frequencies, the skin effect is so pronounced that, in order to save copper, tubes, rather than solid conductors, are used. These are generally termed 'wave guides')

Answer 6

How is ac and dc the same? ALTERNATING CURRENT IS THE SAME FLOW OF ELECTRONS AS DIRECT CURRENT.
In resistive circuits ac works similar to dc.
A typical 9volt battery supplies dc, but can produce ac if you reverse the battery
power wires back and forth a few times per second.

Answer 7

The DC current is continuous while the AC current varies 60 times a second as a sine wave. That means at any instant of time the DC current would be 4 amps, but at that same instant of time the AC current could be any value in its range. For example if the peak to peak AC current varied from -2 amps to +2 amps it could be anywhere in that range at an instant of time.

Answer 8

No they are not the same thing, 1 amp dc is a steady constant current, while 1 amp ac keeps reversing its direction, but it is 1 amp as a kind of 'average'. Why does it keep reversing? because, with ac, transformers can be used to change the voltage easily.

Answer 9

An a.c. current is measured in root-mean-square value which is exactly equivalent to a d.c. current that will perform the same amount of work. So an a.c. current of, say, 10 A is exactly equivalent to a d.c. current of 10 A.

Answer 10

Zero.