• IMPORTANT: Please note that nobody on this forum should be seeking from or providing advice to those who are not competent and / or trained and qualified in their field (local laws permitting). There is a discussion thread on this global industry-wide matter HERE. This also has more information about the warning with regards to sharing electrical advice in some countries. By using this forum you do so in agreement to this.

Discuss What is electricity ? in the Electrical Wiring, Theories and Regulations area at ElectriciansForums.net

Welcome to ElectriciansForums.net - The American Electrical Advice Forum
Head straight to the main forums to chat by click here:   American Electrical Advice Forum

Darkwood

Staff member
Mod
Esteemed
Arms
Supporter
Reaction score
10,206
Just for my own curiosity I was wondering what members actually think electricity is and how does it flow etc...

I was a little bored and decided to clock some educational youtube videos on the basics but I'm just dumbfounded how much misinformation is out there and this is the same stuff taught in schools in my days and still today so without cheating and trying to get an instant degree in advanced electrical theory via Google I was just wondering how you all perceive what is probably your bread and butter.?
 
As far as I understand it...

In it's most base form, electricity is a difference in potential caused by an excess (or shortage) of electrons.

When we perceive current flowing from positive to negative it's actually a flow of electrons from negative to positive trying to address a manufactured imbalance in charges.

Electrons are influenced by magnetic fields which yields the ability to generate electricity using mechanical means and an imbalance can be created by chemical means which facilitates batteries.

Whilst electricity appears to be instant, possibly leading to the assumption that electrons travel incredibly quickly, the actual motion of electrons is quite slow (relatively speaking).

That's me done :)
 
Ok I see the model school teachings seeping through here.. so I will ask a few questions

What speed do the electrons travel at in yer standard household copper conductor (ball park figure will do)?
What happens in AC to electron flow?
Where about on the conductor does the 'electricity flow' occur?

I am asking these not to try trip anyone up I am just interested to see how members understand electric and whether it is based on the basic schooling principles we are taught or whether they have delved deeper.
 
What speed do the electrons travel at in yer standard household copper conductor (ball park figure will do)?
What happens in AC to electron flow?
Where about on the conductor does the 'electricity flow' occur?

I did physics, chemistry and electronics at A level before starting my apprenticeship.

1: surprisingly slowly, I can’t remember the equation but seem to recall it’s referred to as electron drift which is a better description.
2: I can’t remember,
3: it’s dependant on frequency but the tendency is for the current flow to occur towards the surface of the conductor rather than the middle. The higher the frequency is the thinner the skin depth. If I remember correctly at 50Hz the skin depth is around 8mm.

Another good question is the direction of electron flow from a battery,
 
Electricity is energy caused by movement, thats why if you contact it you'l get energy and start to move. Even when you listen to it, it can bring on movement; this is what propels people who go out raving, although nowdays the raving scene is not what it was cause everyone gone low energy LED. Well thats what i think anyway :)
 
I like the old "the electrons in a light switch never actually leave the switch"

It's just the same ones shuffling back and forth at 50Hz. Some near the edge will jump over to the wire, then jump back again into the brass terminal a 100th of a second later!
 
There are a number of speeds that relate to electricity.
1, The speed of the electromagnetic wave or signal.
Very close to the speed of light.
2,The speed of the flow of electrons.
Relatively slow, about 3m per second.
3, The speed of the frequency.
50 Hz, 60 Hz, 100 Hz, etc.

Current flows along the surface of a conductor (skin effect), which is why stranded conductors can carry more current than solid and very fine stranded cables even more.
 
i'm usually slowerafterlunch, esp.if it'saliquid lunch.
 
I always think of electricity as a sort of “flow and return” flow being the live and return the neutral, which is possibly why I’ve generally found plumbing to be a doddle! Particularly once you installed the pipes, they fill themselves with water, where as once conduit is installed, the cables have to be pulled in:D
 
I think we have some idea amongst the answers.
Electricity is the propagation of energy through the electromagnetic field and in fact it does not use the conductor as such in the way we are taught, it is the field interaction around the conductor that moves the signal/energy wave, the conductor acts like a guide wire, it is not actually conducting the energy through it, however the field and conductor interact and this interaction occurs over the surface to a depth dependant on field strength, because it occurs across the surface of the conductor we call it the skin effect and this is where there is generated the electron drift, this is also why overloaded conductors get hot because the valence electrons cannot keep pace with the energy imbued on them and the dance around like James Brown on Speed, the more electrons IE the thicker the cable the better it can deal with the increased field strength.

I never understood why we are taught it all wrong, now I appreciate it is simplified for visualisation but getting the direction of 'current flow' wrong in our school is not really good education, I spent yrs not really understanding why electric in a DC circuit was always shown as flowing from positive to negative, I thought I just didn't get it until I asked my final year physics teacher who told me I was correct and to ignore most of the stuff in the text books ... :eek: as it is just for simplified expression so as not to confuse.
 
Current flows along the surface of a conductor (skin effect), which is why stranded conductors can carry more current than solid and very fine stranded cables even more.

Most of the bus bars in our subs are hollow for this reason

I thought I just didn't get it until I asked my final year physics teacher who told me I was correct and to ignore most of the stuff in the text books ... :eek: as it is just for simplified expression so as not to confuse.
In my failed attempt at a degree in electrical engineering I was told it was it a historical thing that what they used for think but now we know it's not. But the maths and parts work regardless.
 
I've been talking to the electrons and they reliably inform me that Edison's greatest achievement came in 1879 when he designed the simple electrical circuit. The scam involves an electric company sends electrons through a wire to a customer, then immediately gets the electrons back through another wire. And then and this is the brilliant part, sends it right back to the customer again. This means that the electric company can sell a customer the same batch of electrons thousands of times a day and never get caught, since very few customers take the time to examine their electrons closely. In fact, the last year any new electrons were generated was 1937. Whilst I don’t dispute their version of evens, I can’t understand why they have to be so negative all the time. I’ve yet to meet a optimistic one. All I know for sure is that electricity is black magic.:D
 

Reply to What is electricity ? in the Electrical Wiring, Theories and Regulations area at ElectriciansForums.net

This website was designed, optimised and is hosted by Untold Media. Operating under the name Untold Media since 2001.
Back
Top