Difference between AC and DC currents

Definition of AC and DC currents. There are 2 types of electric current or electric voltage that you often find, such as AC electric current and DC electric current. What does AC and DC electric current mean or what is the difference between AC and DC current?

In this sophisticated era, most of the appliances we use use electricity, for example lights, cell phones, refrigerators, computers and all that require electrical energy to operate.

In this article Electrical Classes will tell you about AC and DC voltage.

To use an electrical device, of course you must use the appropriate voltage

An example is an inverter can operate using 12V AC voltage, another example is a tone control that will work with a 12V DC voltage

Also read

Unit of work and energy

DC generator

All types of electrical equipment require different electrical power. And you know that the electric current we use consists of 2 types, namely AC and DC currents.

What is meant by AC and DC currents will be explained in the explanation below

What is AC and DC currents

AC current or alternating current or also known as alternating current is a large current and the direction that is constantly changing.

AC and DC current


If seen further, AC current graph will be called sine waves. AC current is generated by a generator, or dynamo. Inverter is basically use for converting DC current into AC current. We currently use AC type of electricity in our daily life.

Difference between AC and DC currents

My friend you will know that the LED lights will still light while the position is forward and backward. This is because electricity is AC power.

The AC current frequency is 50-60 Hz which means that the positive and negative voltages will change 50-60 times per second. The frequency of AC current is different for different Country. The advantage of AC power is that it can be easily passed on the transformer so we can easily step up and step down the supply.


What is dc current ?

DC current or direct current is a current for example a positive and negative pole with a fixed position that the current in the battery is DC.

Difference between AC and DC currents

The type of DC current used in our daily life is to charge cell phones, laptops, power amplifiers, radios, VCDs etc. If you have an AC voltage source while you have electrical equipment that requires DC voltage, you need an adapter to convert AC current to DC. In adapter we are using Diodes. So using Diode we can convert AC supply into DC supply.

Read this also

What is conductors and insulators

What is Electric current ?

If you look at the phone charger, you will find the input is AC supply and output is DC voltages.


AC into DC converter