How Electricity Actually Works


In November of last year I posted a Vertasium YT vid titled "The Big Misconception About Electricity".  Well it caused quite a stir and like an arachnid had many legs many of which attempted to draw A'gonrs into the poison fangs!

Well, here is the follow-up to that original vid which caused quite a stir in the "intellectual" community as well.

Vertasium "How Electricity Actually Works".

 

This does have implications for our audio cabling...

Regards,

barts 

128x128barts

 

pingstonsmile, there is a YouTube channel called Kathy Loves Physics & History that goes into such things as why most of the world uses 50 Hz 220V and the US and some others use 60 Hz 120V.

All of it is very interesting and she is writing a book on it all...and how it all came about since the early days of electricity. 

@jea48 

In all of the books of electronics and electrical engineering, the electric signal through the conductor is the ordered motion of electrons

I think it’s great he made that video and got people like me thinking, even though it was a little misleading. In his follow up video he makes it clear that the bulb will by no means come on full strength right away, and that the early effect will still occur even if the circuit is open somewhere way out there in space. Once that was made clear I was reminded of when I first learned about transformers, how they could transfer power without any direct physical connection between the conductors. I was amazed at that, but also disappointed that they tended to be noisy and inefficient.

On another controversial claim seen in a YouTube video, the notion that you can make a wind powered car that can go down wind faster than the wind still messes with my head.

 

On another controversial claim seen in a YouTube video, the notion that you can make a wind powered car that can go down wind faster than the wind still messes with my head.

My understanding is there are two effective forces, one is the wind pushing, but the other, less obvious, is the wind "pulling"  (though still pushing). Sail boats can also go much faster than the wind.

I didn't spend a lot of time looking at this, but appears to be Bernoulli force, just like an airplane. The wind travels faster over the sail, which causes low pressure, so you have additional force acting on the sail which makes the boat go faster.

In the ground car, the low pressure is created by the propeller. The wind does not spin the propeller, it moves the car whose wheels are connected to the propeller causing it to spin.

 

@jea48

In all of the books of electronics and electrical engineering, the electric signal through the conductor is the ordered motion of electrons

@czarivey

This guy wrote a few books too...

Here’s an article he wrote a few years ago.

What is Electronics - Ralph Morrison

Here is an excerpt from the article:

Storing or moving energy.

There is a common misconception that signals are carried in conductors. Somehow this association crosses over to the idea that conductors carry both signals and energy. A few simple calculations can show that this is a false idea. Consider a 50-ohm transmission line carrying a 5-volt logic signal. The initial current at switch closure is 500 mA. A typical trace is a a gram-mole of copper that has 6 x 1023 copper atoms (Avogadro’s number). Each atom can contribute one electron to current flow. Knowing the charge on an electron makes it easy to show that the average electron velocity for 500 mA is a few centimeters per second. What is even more interesting is that only a trillion electrons are involved in this current flow. This means that only one electron in a trillion carries the current. This also says that the magnetic field that moves energy is not located in the conductors. The only explanation that makes sense is that energy in the magnetic field must be located in the space between two conductors. Conductors end up directing energy flow - not carrying the energy.

 

Here is another article written by the Late Ralph Morrison:

Signals and energy move in the spaces, not in the traces.
by RALPH MORRISON
 

The laws I want to talk about are the basic laws of electricity. I am not referring to circuit theory laws as described by Kirchhoff or Ohm, but to the laws governing the electric and magnetic fields. These fields are fundamental to all electrical activity, whether the phenomenon is lightning, ESD, radar, antennas, sunlight, power generation, analog or digital circuitry. These laws are often called Maxwell’s equations.

The energy we get from sunlight travels in space. The energy comes to us as electromagnetic waves. This means there are both electric and magnetic fields present in the light. There are no wires. This field energy is moving at the speed of light.

Visible light is electromagnetic field energy where the wavelength is 10-7 meters. Radar is electromagnetic wave energy where the wavelength is 10-2 meters. Utility power is electromagnetic wave energy where the wavelength is near 10 million meters. Lenses can direct light energy; waveguides can direct radar energy; and copper conductors can direct the energy at power frequencies. Thus, we direct energy flow at different frequencies by using different materials. We have learned how to control where we want the field energy to go.

 

If we accept the idea that fields carry energy in space, it must be true at all frequencies. That is the law. If it is true for light, it must also be true for 60Hz power and at DC. For utility power, the energy travels in the space between conductors, not in the conductors. This is not the picture presented by circuit diagrams, where energy seems to be carried by conductors. In digital circuits, the signals and energy travel in the spaces between traces or between traces and conducting surfaces.

Buildings have halls and walls. People move in the halls, not the walls. Circuits have traces and spaces. Signals and energy move in the spaces, not in the traces.