To understand how electric charge moves from one atom to another, you should know something about atoms and their structure.
What is Electricity: Electricity is the fundamental form of energy available in a positive and negative form. It occurs naturally or can be produced by a generator. It is expressed in terms of the movement and interaction of electrons.
In simple words, the movement of electrons from one atom to another is called Electric current. Electricity is the source of energy that is derived from other sources like solar power, wind, and coal. Electric charge is the property of matter. The history of electricity is also quite interesting.
What is Atom: An atom is the basic building block of matter and it can be divided into many particles. The three major sub-atomic particles are electrons, protons, and neutrons. These three particles are important because they affect the electrical properties of the material. The protons and neutrons form the central mass or nucleus of an atom. One or more electrons revolve around the nucleus.
These particles are distinguished from one another in terms of electric charge. Protons are positively charged, electrons are negatively charged and neutrons have no electrical charge.
What is Electric Potential: Electric potential is the potential energy per unit of charge that is associated with a static electric field. It is a scalar quantity measured in volts. The difference in electrical potential between two points is known as voltage.
Electrostatic potential at any point is defined as the work done to bring one unit of 'positive charge' from infinity to that point in an electric field. Consider bringing a positive charge q from infinity towards a fixed, positive charge Q. Because of the repulsion between the charges, we must do work on q to bring it closer to Q. This work is stored as the electric potential energy of q.
Volt: Volt is defined as the electrical force needed to produce 1 ampere of current in 1 ohm of resistance. It is measured with a voltmeter. One volt is defined as the difference in potential between two points in a conductor. When the conductor carries a current of one ampere, it dissipates a power of one watt, i.e.
Volts = Watts/amperes = (Joules/Second)/amperes = Joules/ampere second = Joules/Coulombs
