Recent content by RMJ

Thank you so much. That really ties it up for me. I think I have a way better grasp on the concepts discussed than I did before this chat. Thanks to everyone who replied and helped me along the way. I hope this chat can be of help to other students in the future. Regards, RMJ

Or maybe a better question is: Why does the rest frame separation distance of the moving charges increase just enough to make the conductor electrically neutral?

I understand the post might be confusing and I apologise for that. I'm trying to understand why the conductor is neutral. I'm not defining it as neutral. My point is that many people assume it (or know it) to be neutral when current is flowing, but that I don't understand why. Why is it neutral?

Okay. I accept that my assumption is likely incorrect. May you please prove to me why it is false?

I don't understand what you mean. 'Why do I say what would happen what way? Which assumption are you talking about? Are you saying it would lead to a net charge on the conductor?

Let's say that I set the current (conventional) in the wire to zero. Once I did that, I then measured the average distance between the positive charges in the wire in some long sample region of interest. Let's call this distance "d". Now let's say that I set the (conventional) current in the...

Excuse me. I must not have been clear. I posited that this "neutrality" is part of the usual setup of the problem. The point of this thread is roughly that I truly don't understand how the wire can be assumed to be neutral if it also carries current and therefore contains particles of one charge...

In this frame the wire is clearly not neutral because the density of the particles flowing in the current is higher than that of the stationary charges in the wire.

This is my attempt to understand the behaviour of the wire from the perspective of the test charge: In situation #1 the particle experiences the coulomb force from the wire, but it also experiences a magnetic force equal in magnitude but opposite in direction because the magnetic field is...

By keeping voltage low and minimizing self-capacitance does one ensure that electron density is approximately equal to proton density by keeping current low?

Pardon me. I didn't define the wire to be neutral. I said it is often defined that way. I'm trying to understand how it can be truly neutral even if current flows. (Relativistically)

I don't think you must know the explicit distance between successive charges. This is a conceptual argument. My assumption is that if the current were 0, then the average distance between positive charges would be the same as the average distance between negative charges. All that one must know...

Hello, There is a common setup used when describing the intimate relationship between electricity and magnetism. I have a question about the setup. Setup: There is some long current-carrying wire. Outside of that wire, there is some test charge. In the first situation, the test charge is...