Imaginary Current

I imagine there is.

Maybe an imaginary current meter?

Use digital meter. Remove battery. Imagine any reading you like! -- JHF

An imaginary "imaginary current meter".

I think you are only imagining that such a thing exists in you imagination.

I have an image in my mind where I imagine the existence of imagining an imaginary current meter in my imagination

Without definite facts it's hard to imagine the answer.

Take another hit, anything is possible

I suppose, indirectly. Measure the resistance. Measure the wattage consumed. From that calculate the reactance. Then reactance x V = imaginary current.

Z= R+jX

V= IZ

therefore V= I (R+jX)

"in an AC waveform in which the voltage and current are in phase then you are referring to a resistive load and all the energy is being converted to heat. whereas most of the loads are inductive in nature and hence the voltage will lead the current and the cos of the angle between them is called the power factor. the load now has a resistive and an inductive component. the resistive component creates heat which treated as the real part and the inductor pushes back the energy that was stored in the inductor and hence did not contribute to the heat generation. this is the imaginary part."

I = x + yi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_number

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100519004314AA1Xe4r

Good answers indeed, but would ampere meter readings (digital or analogue) include the imiginary component of the current?

Kill-a-Watt meters are great toys tools.

Seriously, I use mine a lot. (My wife thinks I'm crazy)

Yes but does she think you're crazy because you use a Kilowatt hour meter or are there other factors that you are not willing to share?

It's not an imaginary current, it's an inductive one. The AC current thru an inductive load is a real current (it will heat feeding conductors and can be measured) associated with a complex number (a real + an imaginary number) by means of a model.

It's not really imaginary, it's the component of current that is 90 degrees out of phase with the voltage. An ammeter will measure the total current regardless of phase. It's called imaginary because electrical engineers use complex numbers (real + imaginary) to do calculations.

Use a current probe to feed a signal to any Dynamic Signal Analyzer, compute the average FFT. The Imaginary function is the reactive component. Be sure to calibrate the magnitude (across a resistor) to be sure, because some FFT magnitudes do not compensate for the magnitude of the negative frequencies.

It is not only possible but relatively easy to measure the reactive VAR (imaginary) current or power. Meters are made for that, but the easiest way is to measure the watts (real power), current, and voltage. It is to get the total VA (but don't forget the square root of 3) Figure out the cosine to get the watts and the sine to get the VAR.

As a sidenote: It is possible on a good AC drive to regulate the VAR input and the WATT input separately so that the speed, horsepower, and torque can be separately regulated as is done with DC drive. What is interesting is to observe a motor that can put out more starting torque than the same motor started across the line while never exceeding rated amps.

Yes it is measured directly with a Gnome meter