[Technology] What is the difference between AC and DC current?

You have certainly heard of Direct current DC and alternating current AC ! You don’t know the difference yet? Don’t worry, this 1 minute read article is what you were looking for.

DC current was discovered by the scientist and businessman Thomas Edison. As I described in my previous article “What is electricity?” , it is just the movement of electrons. And DC current is just electrons flowing from a single direction.

At that time Thomas Edison ran a business of Electricity distribution using DC current. But it wasn’t safe and it lost significantly its power over a long distance. He tried all his best to protect his business until a genius discovered another way of doing it.

AC current discovered by the scientist Nikola Tesla, is electrons flowing back and forth in a single direction. In other words, the electrons keep flowing till it reaches its peak then change the polarity (direction) to reach the same point again. We call this a cycle. The rate in which the cycle repeats itself is called frequency and it’s measured by Hertz unit. 1 Hertz = number of cycles per second.

To do an analogy, your 50 Hertz light bulb at your house is flashing 50 times per second. Our slow eyes will never notice it.

• But why did we switch all our home installation and distribution lines to the Alternating current?

Because it’s safe and easier to convert into lower or higher voltage.

• Will we get rid of direct current?

The answer is NO. All electronic devices depend on it, and transistors ( the main components of all electronic devices) use DC current to operate. It is said. DC current still has a lot of advantages at the microscopic and macroscopic level as well.