Answer to Question #70449 in Electricity and Magnetism for hamid

Question

An electron orbiting the nucleus of an atom produces tiny electric current. So why an atom does not shock anyone?

Answer 1

First of all the electric shock itself is a macroscopic event, and cannot be produced by an electron alone.
Second thing is electrons around the nucleus do not really produce current. Actually quantum mechanics had been invented to explain why electron on the orbit does behaves the way it behaves.
On the other hand the classical model is quiet useful to explain the behavior of the electrons in the top shells, for instance the electron orbital magnetic moment can be understood as a loop with a current (of a single electron).