1) See attached figure
The relationship between charge and current is:
where
i is the current
Q is the charge
t is the time
Therefore, the current is the rate of change of the charge passing through a given point over time.
This means that for a graph of charge over time, the current is just equal to the slope of the graph.
For the graph in this problem:
- Between t = 0 and t = 2 s, the slope is
therefore the current is
i = 25 A
- Between t = 2 s and t = 6 s, the slope is
therefore the current is
i = -25 A
- Between t = 6 s and t = 8 s, the slope is
therefore the current is
i = 25 A
The figure attached show these values plotted on a graph.
2)
The previous equation can be rewritten as
This equation is valid if the current is constant: if the current is not constant, then the total charge is simply equal to the area under a current vs time graph.
Here we have the current vs time graph, so we gave to find the area under it.
The area of the first triangle is:
While the area of the second square is
So, the total area (and the total charge) is
