In our daily lives, we may encounter many situations where we need to convert milliamps to amps. Whether you’re buying an electronic device, using a battery, or designing a circuit, it’s useful to know how to make this conversion. After all, it’s more than just a digital conversion; it’s a critical part of ensuring that our devices function properly, our circuit designs are accurate, and we stay safe.
In this guide, we’ll take a closer look at how to make this conversion at a professional level so that you can handle it easily in various situations.
Basic Concepts Explained
Before delving into the concepts of milliamps and amps, it’s essential to grasp the basic definitions of these two units. Milliamps and amps are both units used to measure electrical current, but they serve different roles and hold distinct meanings in practical applications.
The current generated by solar panels is primarily measured in amperes, but milliamps are much more precise, especially in smaller solar applications, individual solar cells, or when evaluating the performance of solar-powered devices and systems. Especially when estimating battery life and charging time, it helps to efficiently utilize solar energy in a variety of applications.
Milliampere (mA), often abbreviated as “milliampere”, is a metric unit used to quantify electrical current and is more common in smaller electronic devices and systems. Its prefix “milli” denotes parts per thousand. 1 milliampere = 1/1000 of an ampere.It is more common in specification sheets for electronic devices that draw relatively small amounts of current, such as in precision instruments, watches, sensors, and small circuits.
Milliamps are commonly used to describe devices’ battery capacity or circuits’ current requirements. For example, a 1000 milliamp-hour (mAh) battery theoretically can supply 1000 milliamps of current for one hour, or 100 milliamps for ten hours.
Ampere (A) is a unit of electric current used to measure the rate of flow of electrons in a circuit. You can think of electric current as the flow of water, and amperes represent the flow rate. In other words, amperes tell us how many electrons pass through a point every second.
In our daily lives, we often encounter devices or circuits labeled with ampere values, indicating the amount of current they can handle or provide. For example, a smartphone charger might be labeled as 2 amps, meaning it can deliver 2 amps of current per second. Similarly, household outlets typically supply 10 to 15 amps of current, which is enough for most household appliances.
However, exceeding the ampere rating of a device can lead to overload. For instance, plugging a device that requires 10 amps into an outlet that can only provide 5 amps could damage the device or even cause a fire.
Milliamps to Amps Converter
The formula to convert milliamps (mA) to amps (A) is:
Amps (A) = Milliamps (mA) / 1000
For example,
50 milliamps to amps
=50/1000
=0.05 amps
Using a converter to accomplish the fastest and most accurate conversions will save you time in calibrating, especially if the result of the calculation carries many zeros:
Common Milliampere to Ampere Interconversions
When evaluating circuit parameters and selecting electronic components, conversions between current units are very common, and the following table shows some common conversion values for your reference.
Supplementation of Amperes and Milliamps
- The units with special names derived from the ampere are:
| Quantity | Unit | Symbol | Meaning | In SI base units |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electric charge | coulomb | C | ampere second | A⋅s |
| Electric potential difference | volt | V | joule per coulomb | kg⋅m2⋅s−3⋅A−1 |
| Electrical resistance | ohm | Ω | volt per ampere | kg⋅m2⋅s−3⋅A−2 |
| Electrical conductance | siemens | S | ampere per volt or inverse ohm | s3⋅A2⋅kg−1⋅m−2 |
| Electrical inductance | henry | H | ohm second | kg⋅m2⋅s−2⋅A−2 |
| Electrical capacitance | farad | F | coulomb per volt | s4⋅A2⋅kg−1⋅m−2 |
| Magnetic flux | weber | Wb | volt second | kg⋅m2⋅s−2⋅A−1 |
| Magnetic flux density | tesla | T | weber per square metre | kg⋅s−2⋅A−1 |
- What is 1 milliampere in other units？
| 1 Milliampere | to common electric-current units |
| 1 mA | = 0.001 amperes (A) |
| 1 mA | = 0.0001 abamperes (abA) |
| 1 mA | = 1.0E-12 gigaamperes (GA) |
| 1 mA | = 0.0012566366121077 gilberts (Gb) |
| 1 mA | = 0.0001 biots (Bi) |
| 1 mA | = 1.0E-6 kiloamperes (kA) |
| 1 mA | = 1.0E-9 megaamperes (MA) |
| 1 mA | = 1000 microamperes (μA) |
| 1 mA | = 1 milliamperes (mA) |
| 1 mA | = 1000000 nanoamperes (nA) |
- Short circuit current is the current that flows when a fault occurs in a circuit. This usually occurs when a wire comes into direct contact with another wire or ground. In a short-circuit situation, the resistance in the circuit drops to almost zero, allowing a very high current to flow. This high current can be dangerous and, if not properly protected, can lead to overheating, equipment damage, and even fire. Therefore, we need to design protective devices such as fuses, circuit breakers and overcurrent protection devices to limit short-circuit currents.
- Operating current is the current that flows in a circuit during normal operation when there are no faults or abnormalities. It represents the typical load current experienced by the circuit during normal operation. Operating current varies depending on the specific application and the equipment connected to the circuit. We typically use amperes (A) as the unit to measure operating current and are used to determine the proper sizing of wires, switches, and other components in a circuit to ensure that they can safely carry the intended load.
Other Calculators
