ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Four-current

Imagine you are standing in a river and you see some leaves floating by. The leaves are like electric charges that move through the river. The four-current is a way to describe how those electric charges move through the river of space and time.

In this case, the river of space and time is called spacetime. It's a special kind of river that has four parts - up/down, left/right, forwards/backwards, and time.

The four-current is a way to describe how electric charges move through spacetime. It has four parts too - one for each part of spacetime. The first part tells you how many electric charges are moving up and down, the second part tells you how many are moving left and right, the third part tells you how many are moving forwards and backwards, and the fourth part tells you how many are moving through time.

Just like the leaves in the river, electric charges can move in different ways. They can move in only one direction, like a current in a wire. Or they can move in different directions at the same time, like the leaves moving in the river.

The four-current helps scientists understand how electric charges move in different situations. It's like a map or a recipe that tells you how to calculate the movements of the electric charges. By using the four-current, scientists can make predictions about how electric charges will behave in different situations, like inside a particle accelerator or in a lightning bolt.

So, the four-current is like a special recipe that helps scientists understand how electric charges move through spacetime. It has four parts that describe how many charges are moving in each direction, and it can be used to make predictions about how electric charges will behave in different situations.