Electric charge is best described as:

• A. The rate at which energy is transferred by a device.
• B. A property that measures the amount of electrons (charge) in a system, measured in Coulombs
• C. The energy stored in chemical bonds.
• D. The current in a circuit.

Answer: (B)

Electric charge is a property of matter that tells you how much electric charge an object has, coming from an imbalance of electrons and protons. It is measured in Coulombs and can be positive or negative. A small amount of charge can involve a huge number of elementary charges, since 1 Coulomb is about 6.24 × 10^18 elementary charges. This concept is about what charge is, not how fast or how much energy is moving. The rate at which energy is transferred by a device is power, not charge. The energy stored in chemical bonds is chemical energy, not electrical charge. The current in a circuit is the flow of charge per unit time, so it describes how fast charge is moving, not the total amount of charge itself. So, describing electric charge as a property that measures the amount of charge in a system, in Coulombs, is the best description.