- #1
BrianConlee
- 65
- 0
Hope the subject caught your attention, I just wanted to clarify my some things about ac current...
Ok, for our "circuit" we're going to have copper wire for simplicity's sake. Also, we're going to say that our Electric force travels at c on the wire. Just a big loop, no sharp turns, nothing crazy. Ignore the obscene Ohmic losses we would have unless our voltage was in the google range. (wow, can you imagine that?) And the circumfrence is 299,792,458 meters long.
Now, with the 60 Hz current coming out of my wall, and the circuit an entire light second long:
1. Does the signal travel from positive to negative, taking an entire second to circle the circuit or does the signal leave both terminals simultaneously and "meet in the middle" taking 1/2 a second to effectively traverse the entire circuit?
2. At any given instant, if you freeze the circuit in time, is the current changing direction 120 times along the entire circuit? (2 direction changes per hertz on a sinosoidial wave).
3. Since the whole circuit is just one big loop with a current, is it a solenoid? Or, if question 2 is "yes," how does this affect things?
4. Assuming copper is about .75 per meter, does anyone have about 225 million dollars I can borrow to build it? I'm sure the U.S. Government could just write a check, right?Thanks!
Ok, for our "circuit" we're going to have copper wire for simplicity's sake. Also, we're going to say that our Electric force travels at c on the wire. Just a big loop, no sharp turns, nothing crazy. Ignore the obscene Ohmic losses we would have unless our voltage was in the google range. (wow, can you imagine that?) And the circumfrence is 299,792,458 meters long.
Now, with the 60 Hz current coming out of my wall, and the circuit an entire light second long:
1. Does the signal travel from positive to negative, taking an entire second to circle the circuit or does the signal leave both terminals simultaneously and "meet in the middle" taking 1/2 a second to effectively traverse the entire circuit?
2. At any given instant, if you freeze the circuit in time, is the current changing direction 120 times along the entire circuit? (2 direction changes per hertz on a sinosoidial wave).
3. Since the whole circuit is just one big loop with a current, is it a solenoid? Or, if question 2 is "yes," how does this affect things?
4. Assuming copper is about .75 per meter, does anyone have about 225 million dollars I can borrow to build it? I'm sure the U.S. Government could just write a check, right?Thanks!