- #1
taylaron
Gold Member
- 397
- 1
when you run electricity through a wire it creates a magnetic field which is proportional to the amount of electricity flowing through it.
At the subatomic level, you've got a whole bunch of copper atoms, each surrounded by orbiting electrons. flowing electricity is the "switching" of these electrons from one neighbor atom the other.
in any wire (that isn't one atom in diameter) electrons flow in a general straight line. thus you have current. but within the wire; electrons are being "switched". but i don't think that it would be safe to assume that the switching is taking place with atoms in a straight line. my point is you've got electrons not always "switching" in a straight line. you result in a minuscule electromagnetic field that is not oriented in the same way the magnetic field of the electrons switching in a straight line.
if you've got a whole bunch of these transfer's going on in a wire; wouldn't that decrease the size of the magnetic field in the big picture (that the copper wire is generating as a "whole")?
I've come up with a concept that I am curious whether it is true or not.
My idea is that you've got a 100 gauge copper wire with insulation around it; when you run x amount of electricity through it, it produces a magnetic field around the wire.
then you take 100, 1 gauge wire covered in an ultra-thin insulator, then you run x/100 electricity through each wire.
you end up with 1 big insulated wire and one insulated wire with 100 smaller "configurations" within it.
thanks. forgive the crude drawing
At the subatomic level, you've got a whole bunch of copper atoms, each surrounded by orbiting electrons. flowing electricity is the "switching" of these electrons from one neighbor atom the other.
in any wire (that isn't one atom in diameter) electrons flow in a general straight line. thus you have current. but within the wire; electrons are being "switched". but i don't think that it would be safe to assume that the switching is taking place with atoms in a straight line. my point is you've got electrons not always "switching" in a straight line. you result in a minuscule electromagnetic field that is not oriented in the same way the magnetic field of the electrons switching in a straight line.
if you've got a whole bunch of these transfer's going on in a wire; wouldn't that decrease the size of the magnetic field in the big picture (that the copper wire is generating as a "whole")?
I've come up with a concept that I am curious whether it is true or not.
My idea is that you've got a 100 gauge copper wire with insulation around it; when you run x amount of electricity through it, it produces a magnetic field around the wire.
then you take 100, 1 gauge wire covered in an ultra-thin insulator, then you run x/100 electricity through each wire.
you end up with 1 big insulated wire and one insulated wire with 100 smaller "configurations" within it.
thanks. forgive the crude drawing