unit:C
The SI unit of electric charge. One coulomb is the amount of charge accumulated in one second by a current of one ampere. Electricity is actually a flow of charged particles, such as electrons, protons, or ions. The charge on one of these particles is a whole-number multiple of the charge e on a single electron, and one coulomb represents a charge of approximately 6.241 506 x 1018 e. The coulomb is named for a French physicist, Charles-Augustin de Coulomb (1736-1806), who was the first to measure accurately the forces exerted between electric charges.