Coulomb | Unit, Symbol, & Definition | Britannica (original) (raw)

unit of energy measurement

_verified_Cite

While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions.

Select Citation Style

Feedback

Corrections? Updates? Omissions? Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login).

Feedback Type

Your Feedback

Thank you for your feedback

Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.

Also known as: C

Written and fact-checked by

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

coulomb, unit of electric charge in the metre-kilogram-second-ampere system, the basis of the SI system of physical units. It is abbreviated as C. The coulomb is defined as the quantity of electricity transported in one second by a current of one ampere. Named for the 18th–19th-century French physicist Charles-Augustin de Coulomb, it is approximately equivalent to 6.24 × 1018 electrons, with the charge of one electron, the elementary charge, being defined as 1.602176634 × 10−19 C.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Erik Gregersen.