电量为什么用q，电流为什么用i表示？

电量最开始是quantity of electricity,而E用掉了，所以用了Q，而电流被认为是电的强度即electrical intensity.所以就用了i表示。

How does the letter Q stand for “charge” in electricity? The unit of measure for charge is the coulomb, named for the French physicist Charles-Augustin de Coulomb (1736 – 1806), and the coulomb is abbreviated C, but Q?  

A little background is required. “Charge” relates to the predominance of electrons (negative charge) or deficiency of electrons (positive charge). Before "electricity" meant simply the power that came from plugging an appliance into a wall socket, scientists studied "electricity" because that word is rooted in the phenomenon of attraction, from the Latin electrum and the Greek electron (both meaning “amber”) when the ancients studied the ability of fossilized tree resin, amber, to attract other substances. Today the word "electronics" has taken over that study of electrons, as pointed out by Merriam-Webster,  which says that that word refers to "a branch of physics that deals with the emission, behavior, and effects of electrons (as in electron tubes and transistors) and with electronic devices."

One of the aspects of "electricity" was its "quantity." To quote the website bartleby.com:

"Negative and positive electricity. Two opposite conditions of the electric state of bodies. At one time electricity was considered a fluid, as heat was thought to be caloric. Everybody was thought to have a certain quantity. If a body contained more than its normal quantity it was said to be positive, if less, it was said to be negative in this respect. Another theory was that there were two different electric fluids, which neutralized each other when they came in contact. Electricity is now supposed to be a mere condition, like heat and motion; but its energy is set in action by some molecular disturbance, such as friction, rupture, and chemical action. The old terms are still retained."

This “predominance” or “deficiency” of electrons, the principle we know as "charge," was also called the “quantity of electricity." "E" referred to electrons, so "Q," after the first word of that phrase, came to represent “charge.” Wikipedia notes that “the term ‘quantity of electricity’ was once common in scientific publications. It appears frequently in the writings of Franklin, Faraday, Maxwell, Millikan, and J. J. Thomson, and was even occasionally used by Einstein.” All these scientists studied charge, and today that word is used instead of “quantity of electricity,” but the Q remains.

The simplified formula for charge — in the real world, the calculation can get quite complex — is 

Q = I t

Where

Q is charge in coulombs (C)

I is current in amperes (A)

t is time in seconds (s)

 

"I is used for current because current was originally referred to as electrical intensity"

 

"The story I got is that it's French, which often accounts for a lot of

mysteries in this world. "I" stands for "intensitie" or however it's

spelled--I don't know much French. I'm afraid that I don't have a

good reference handy.

 

I probably would have applied "intensity" to voltage, not current, but

at the time all the electrical units were being thrashed out there was

considerable confusion as to what was what. Also, nobody asked me.

 

As it stands, voltage became "E," for "electromotive force" in the

English-speaking world and "U," which presumably stands for something

else, everywhere else. Convention has lately had "E" changing to "V."

 

But "I" for current seems to be pretty constant all over the world.

 

My favorite misuse of symbols is becoming standardized in the

electronics newsgroups, I'm sorry to say. One of the standard

mistakes of beginning electronics students is the use of R as a unit

instead of a symbol. They'll call a 10,000 ohm resistor a "10,000 R"

resistor, for which they lost credit when they did it in my classes.

But I'm afraid that this usage has become rampant in e-mail, possibly

because there's no handy omega symbol on the computer keyboard.

 

Mark Kinsler