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Technical and scientific discussion of amps, cables and other topics.

RE: Your thoughts please.

Electrons move along at the leisurely pace of around one meter per hour in copper wire.


Small steps at a time.

The size of the wiggle
And about AC... how far do the electrons move as they vibrate back and forth? Well, we know that a one-amp current in 1mm wire is moving at 8.4cm per hour, so in one second it moves:
8.4cm / 3600sec = .00233 cm per second

And in 1/60 of a second it will travel back and forth by
.00233cm/sec * (1/60) = .0000389cm, or around .00002"


This simple calculation is for a square wave. For a sine wave we'd integrate the velocity to determine the width of electron travel.

So for a typical AC current in a typical lamp cord, the electrons don't actually "flow," instead they vibrate back and forth by about a hundred-thousandth of an inch.

So for those that say an AC signal is moving/flowing back and forth in an IC connected to two pieces of audio equipment is wrong. The AC is not flowing back and forth, it is only vibrating. Correct?





Edits: 02/22/14

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