alternating current

English

Noun

alternating current (countable and uncountable, plural alternating currents) (abbreviated as AC)

1. (physics) An electric current in which the direction of flow of the electrons reverses periodically, such as sawtooth, sinusoidal or square wave current.
2. (physics) An electric current in which the direction of flow of the electrons reverses periodically by a sinusoidal law, hence having an average of zero, with positive and negative values (with a frequency of 50 Hz in Europe, 60 Hz in the US, 400 Hz for airport lighting, and some others); especially such a current produced by a rotating generator or alternator.

Translations

electric current that reverses direction periodically

• Arabic: تَيَّار مُتَرَدِّد m (tayyār mutaraddid)
• Bulgarian: проме́нлив ток m (proménliv tok)
• Catalan: corrent altern m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 交流電／交流电 (zh) (jiāoliúdiàn), 交流电 (zh) (jiāoliúdiàn), 交流 (zh) (jiāoliú)

• Czech: střídavý proud m
• Danish: vekselstrøm (da) c
• Dutch: wisselstroom (nl) f
• Estonian: vahelduvvool (et)
• Faroese: vendistreymur m
• Finnish: vaihtovirta (fi)
• French: courant alternatif (fr) m
• German: Wechselstrom (de) m
• Greek: εναλλασσόμενο ρεύμα n (enallassómeno révma)
• Greenlandic: vekselstrømmi
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Hungarian: váltóáram (hu), váltakozó áram (hu)
• Irish: sruth ailtéarnach m
• Japanese: 交流電流 (こうりゅうでんりゅう, kōryū denryū), 交流 (ja) (こうりゅう, kōryū)
• Maori: iahiko hohoko
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: vekselstrøm m

  Nynorsk: vekselstraum m

• Polish: prąd przemienny m, prąd zmienny m
• Portuguese: corrente alternada (pt) f
• Romanian: curent alternativ (ro) m
• Russian: знакопереме́нный ток m (znakopereménnyj tok) периодический двунаправленный переменный ток m (periodičeskij dvunapravlennyj peremennyj tok)
• Slovak: striedavý prúd m
• Spanish: corriente alterna f
• Swedish: växelström (sv) c

electric current that reverses direction sinusoidally

• Finnish: vaihtovirta (fi); sinivirta (technical, rare)
• Romanian: curent alternativ (ro) m, curent alternativ sinusoidal m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Russian: синусоидальный ток m (sinusoidalʹnyj tok)

See also

• direct current
• generator
• transformer
• inverter