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There are, to my knowledge, two devices which can be used to measure electrical charge (I know your question asked for a device which determined the presence of an electrical charge but this achieves the same thing). These are the Ammeter and the voltmeter.

1). Measuring electrical charge with an ammeter

In order to determine the electrical charge with an ammeter, you attach the device to an electrical circuit IN SERIES (this is important and will be explained at the end of this answer). This will then give you a reading of the number of amps, or coulombs per second. You can then use basic mathematics to determine the charge here as I will now demonstrate,

Because we know that I = Q÷t (where I is the current in amps or the equivalent unit coulombs per second, Q is the charge in coulombs and t is the time in seconds), we are able to re-arrange this to calculate the value of Q,

I = Q÷t

=I×t = Q÷t×t

=I×t = Qt÷t (note that the t variable will cancel out on the right hand side of the equals sign because t÷t = 1 and Q×1 = Q)

=I×t = Q

Therefore the general formula to calculate the charge is,

Q = I×t

However in this particular problem, we can assume t = 1 because I is measured in amps or (more significantly) coulombs per second, i.e. C/t. Note that this formula can also be used to calculate the total electrical charge used in t seconds (where t doesn't equal 1)

2). Measuring electrical charge with a voltmeter

It is possible to calculate the electrical charge of a circuit with knowledge of the voltage to a circuit; however it is important to note the following,

-1. The total resistance of a series circuit = R1 +R2 + Rn

-2. The total resistance of a parallel circuit = (1/R1 + 1/R2 + 1/Rn)-1

-3. Because some circuits contain both parallel and series components, you may need to apply the above two formulas to different parts of the same circuit and then add those numbers together to arrive at the total resistance of a circuit with both series and parallel components.

-4. There is a constant current for each and every component of a series circuit.

-5. There is a variable voltage for each and every component of a series circuit.

-6. There is a constant voltage for each and every component of a parallel circuit.

-7. There is a variable current for each and every component of a parallel circuit.

Armed with this knowledge, you can then calculate the charge in the circuit by first calculating the total amount of resistance in the circuit. We then need to input this number into ohms law (which is V = I×R) and then solving for I (which will be the total current),

V=I×R

=V÷R = I×R÷R

=V÷R = I×1

=I = V÷R

Once we have the total current used in the circuit, it is then possible to calculate the total charge by the formula Q =I×t (as explained in part one).

There probably are other devices which can be used; however I am not aware of them.

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15y ago

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