Electric Current is having direction and magnitude still scalar physical quantities?

Electric current, in many circumstances, is referred to as a scalar quantity. For instance, one might speak of a current of “X amps flowing through a wire”. This may only be done due to certain assumptions which are implicit in the statement’s context. Considering the example statement I just gave, it is obviously assumed that the current is flowing inside the wire and thus its direction is always the same as the segment of wire considered. Also, we would generally assume that there is a steady flow of current throughout the wire such that the current in all segments of the wire is uniform. Therefore, the direction is assumed to known, and often its specific direction is unimportant for many simple electrical applications, and all one need know is its magnitude (the scalar quantity). read less

Electric current, in many circumstances, is referred to as a scalar quantity. For instance, one might speak of a current of “X amps flowing through a wire”. This may only be done due to certain assumptions which are implicit in the statement’s context. Considering the example statement I just gave, it is obviously assumed that the current is flowing inside the wire and thus its direction is always the same as the segment of wire considered. Also, we would generally assume that there is a steady flow of current throughout the wire such that the current in all segments of the wire is uniform. Therefore, the direction is assumed to known, and often its specific direction is unimportant for many simple electrical applications, and all one need know is its magnitude (the scalar quantity). There are more general cases, however, where one can (should) speak of current as a vector quantity, with both a magnitude and direction. In applications where the current is not uniform throughout and where the effects of the current (for example: magnetism) are important one generally speaks of current vectors, or current density vectors. There are instances where an electric current can flow without wires, such as when there is a moving charge distribution in space. In this case, it is useful to have a vector representation of the current flow. So, yes, current is considered a vector quantity in certain applications, while other times it is simply a scalar for convenience purposes. read less

The direction should really be considered to be "sign" more than a proper vector direction. In particular, Current is defined by defining a surface, and then counting the number of particles that cross that surface per unit time. It only depends on the relative orientation of the surface and the charges, it has no absolute notion of distance. More mathematically, the vector nature of these things is dotted out. read less