DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AC AND DC CURRENT AC is short for alternating current. This means that the direction of current flowing in a circuit is constantly being reversed back and forth. The electrical current in your house is alternating current. This comes from power plants that are operated by the electric company. Those big wires you see stretching across the countryside are carrying AC current from the power plants to the loads, which are in our homes and businesses. The direction of current is switching back and forth 60 times each second.
DC (direct current) is the unidirectional flow or movement of electric charge carriers (which are usually electrons). The intensity of the current can vary with time, but the general direction of movement stays the same at all times. As an adjective, the term DC is used in reference to voltage whose polarity never reverses. In a DC circuit, electrons emerge from the negative, or minus, pole and move towards the positive, or plus, pole. Nevertheless, physicists define DC as traveling from plus to minus.
In DC circuits, the electricity is always the same polarity, which means that in a two-wire circuit, one "wire", or side of the circuit, is always negative, and the negative side is always the one that sends the electricity. There is no hum because there is no cyclic change in current flow. DC current is more effective for long-distance, high-voltage transmission because it results in less energy lost in transmission, but the cost of converting DC current to AC is relatively high, so DC is typically cost-effective only for long-distance transmission.
Electrical devices that convert electricity directly into other forms of energy can operate just as effectively from AC current as from DC. Light bulbs and