Solved cryptogram

The ampere measures a flow of charge, and one amp is a fixed number of electrons a second.

Physics Facts, sourced to NIST.

What it means

The older definition of the amp described a force between two infinitely long parallel wires, which is a thought experiment rather than something anyone can set up. The modern one is far more direct. Charge comes in whole units carried by electrons, so a current is just a rate of counting, and the ampere is defined by fixing how much charge a single electron carries.

The claim comes from NIST, and the page it comes from was read on 2026-08-27 to confirm it still says this.

This is not the kind of claim that goes out of date, which is why it was set as a puzzle rather than a fact with a shelf life.

Solve it yourself

This fact is a cryptogram here: 71 letters over 20 different ones, graded medium.

Go to the puzzle

Nearby in the collection

The facts either side of this one.

About as hard as this one

Scored closest to it by the model behind our guide to solving cryptograms.

Play a cryptogram

Every Physics Facts cryptogram · All fact collections