Question

The compressor on an air conditioner draws 66.1 a when it starts up. the start-up time is about 0.388 s. how much charge passes a cross-sectional area of the circuit in this time? answer in units of c

Answer 1

The current intensity is defined as the amount of charge flowing through a certain point of a wire divided by the time interval:
$I= \frac{Q}{\Delta t}$
where Q is the charge and $\Delta t$ is the time. Re-arranging the formula, we have
$Q=I \Delta t$

for the compressor in our problem, the intensity of current is I=66.1 A, while the time is $\Delta t= 0.388 s$, so the amount of charge that crosses a certain point of the circuit during this time is
$Q=I \Delta t=(66.1 A)(0.388 s)=25.65 C$