ampere

The basic unit of electric current intensity, equal, in the meter-kilogram-second system, to a rate of flow of charge in a conductor or conducting medium of one coulomb per second and, in the SI system, to a constant current that, if maintained in two straight parallel conductors of infinite length and negligible circular cross section placed one meter apart in a vacuum, would produce between these conductors a force equal to 2 x 10^-7 newtons per meter of length.

Am`père" (äN`par"), Am*pere" (am*pAr"), n. [From the name of a French electrician.] (Elec.)

The unit of electric current; -- defined by the International Electrical Congress in 1893 and by U. S. Statute as, one tenth of the unit of current of the C. G. S. system of electro-magnetic units, or the practical equivalent of the unvarying current which, when passed through a standard solution of nitrate of silver in water, deposits silver at the rate of 0.001118 grams per second. Called also the international ampère.

© Webster 1913