electrons....running or jigging?

[Michael Inwards]

In my quest for the ultimate truths of electricity::
As in so many cases that I have come to call the '10/10 rule' (if you ask ten people you get 10 different answers) so i use the old math sets and subsets approach....ask a gob of people i believe would know stuff and put it all together and see what falls into merging sets.

I encounter two seemingly different views of how electrical energy is moved, depending on what I read, or who I listen to:

view 1) electrons 'move' in a circuit ...ie go in one end and travel to going out the other end and thus round and round. so i envision taking a 12 ft piece of 2" pvc and pouring a bunch of marbles in one end and they roll down and emerge on the other....ahhhh moving electons. this group mantains that electrons have by some magic become 'unenergized' or under no force when reaching the neutral side. (begs question: how did they get unenergized?)

view 2) electrons are 'agitated' and basically remain shoulder to shoulder but move back and fourth 60 times a second and thus transmit energy by some magic...i suppose maybe something like the sliver ball clicky things that used to sit on desks and you lift and drop one ball and all those inbetween remain stationary but the energy is transmitted through the arrangement so the ball on the other end bounces off. (maybe not everybody has seen that fascinating device) this group asserts that energy is the same in neutral yet rendered theoretically harmless since it is bonded to a zero potential earth (when needed) and everthing else you dont want fried...including me...are also bonded.

usually there will be someone who says 'neither.....instead its this...'

so I got too wordy....really looking for opinions to enhance my understanding:

ELECTRICITY: moving?.....or stationary and transmitting?

Love the input!!

[Linas Dapkus]

Do as I did. Take any electrical course at a local college. You will learn hands on in the lab. I go 5 hours a week and love it.

[Michael Larson]

Actually the electrons don't move, the holes in the outer valence shell do.

Are you confused yet?

Listen guys, it takes a while to wrap your mind around the subject of electricity and how it behaves.

On top of that it's different for DC circuits and AC circuits.

Take a course or two on basic electricity and you will have a better understanding.

Eventually the light bulb will come on in your head.

[Doug Edwards]

Mike Holt's Illustrated Guide to Basic Electrical Theory. I had electronics training in High school and again in the Navy but his book is by far the best explanation(s) I have ever seen. Starts with very basic intro into "matter" and builds slowly from there. Worth the price of the book.

[Bob Elliott]

Mike a good way to look at it is this.....If I flip a light switch it will come on even if knowledge of electricity is unknown to me in the same way I can win a automobile race not having a clue what an 8 cylinder engine is.
You do not need to understand "all" theory to do the job.
Knowing light travels about 186,000 miles a second is not going to help me figure why a fixture is not working anymore than understanding the physics of water seeking its own level will help figure why an S trap can siphon water .
Just learn the rules.No man can be a total renaissance man today.

Taking a Kinetic art course at the Art Institute a teacher named Steve Waldeck explained that he would show us the basics for making working electrical gadgets following simple rules with no need for complex theory.

He said things like just remember that 100 watts equals about 1 amp like a hair dryer uses 1500 watts and therefore comes close to tripping the breaker and anything that creates heat uses the most electricity because of the resistance.
He did it with stories rather than complex formulas that were above artists heads while enabling them to create moving machines.
His explanations still sit in my head.

[rsmith24]

Just remember electricity is a theory not a science and that's why you get so many different opinions.

And electricity is pulled not pushed though the conductors, in your example with the PVC and marbles, the marbles aren't being pushed though they're being pulled and that is why it stops(becomes unenergized) when not being used (the pulling stops). If it was being pushed it would just keep being pushed.


power plant---------conductor---------light bulb pulling power------nothing pulling-------

[Bob Elliott]

Check out these cool flash tutorials.http://www.edumedia-sciences.com/en/...tric-generator

[Kenny Ross]

I bet the Navy taught "HOLE" travel.......is there really a difference.......

If the electron is negative, how can it push, something must pull it it, right?

The black hole of all electrical power in the world, the ground....or is it the neutral???

Is every ground in the world tied together, or should the rod reach that other one in China....

Oh crap, back to school I go.

There are Electricians, but no Protricians, or Neutricians, I don't think.