Q.Describe the microscopic model of current and obtain the general form of Ohm's law.
Step 1. Consider a conductor of cross-sectional area A, with n free electrons per unit volume, all moving with drift velocity once a field is applied. In a small time dt, an electron moves a distance .
Step 2. The number of electrons contained in a thin slice of the conductor, of length dx and area A, is (volume) (number density) .
Step 3. Each electron carries charge e, so the total charge crossing the area in time dt is , giving the current .
Step 4. Dividing by A defines the current density, ; in vector form, .
Step 5. The drift velocity itself is derived from the acceleration of an electron in the field E between collisions (mean free time ): , so .
Step 6. Substituting into gives ; taking the conventional current-density direction along gives , where is the conductivity.
Step 7. This relation, , is the GENERAL (microscopic) form of Ohm's law -- it is more fundamental than the everyday form because it is built directly from the material's electron density, charge, mass and mean free time, and holds at every point inside the conductor.
Counting electrons in a moving slice of the conductor gives (equivalently ); substituting the drift-velocity relation gives the general (microscopic) form of Ohm's law, with .
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