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InvisibleA Day InThe Life
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How does electricity pass through a large solid conductor?
    #19103169 - 11/07/13 10:10 PM (10 years, 3 months ago)

I was wondering this question in my electrical class before and I'm unsure of how to go about quickly finding the answer on Google so figured I'd ask here in the meantime and see if anyone knew.

When electricity passes through a wire, the electrons spin through the wire in the direction of the flow of current; filling the void of electrons on the positive side, right?

Well I was just curious about how the electrons would flow through a larger, solid mass. For example, how would they move through an engine in a car that's grounded to the chassis? Would it be the shortest linear path through the engine and would the electrons still spin through it like they do in the wire? Or would it be more similar to how lightning moves?

As I'm writing this I'm sort of realizing that it probably doesn't matter exactly how they flow, and that it all probably works in the exact same way. The electrons are just bumping through the wire in the path of least resistance much like they would in a larger mass of a conductor. To be honest though, as I think about it, it all just raises more questions about the properties of electricity and how electrons bump/flow through things.

I kinda wish I was studying physics to be honest, the properties of the universe around us fascinate me.


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Offlineorison
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Re: How does electricity pass through a large solid conductor? [Re: A Day InThe Life]
    #19103182 - 11/07/13 10:13 PM (10 years, 3 months ago)

electricity finds the shortest path of least resistance.. always


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InvisibleStonehenge
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Re: How does electricity pass through a large solid conductor? [Re: orison]
    #19106855 - 11/08/13 05:32 PM (10 years, 3 months ago)

The electrons don't really move around the circuit, the impulse moves. The actual electrons barely move at all.


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Offlineiateshaggy
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Re: How does electricity pass through a large solid conductor? [Re: Stonehenge]
    #19107124 - 11/08/13 06:42 PM (10 years, 3 months ago)

and it doesn't only just take the shortest path, just mostly.


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OfflineSeussA
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Re: How does electricity pass through a large solid conductor? [Re: A Day InThe Life]
    #19109006 - 11/09/13 04:11 AM (10 years, 3 months ago)

> When electricity passes through a wire, the electrons spin through the wire in the direction of the flow of current;

Be careful with this, as there are several gotchas in the statement:

1) Current is the flow of electric charge.  People often misuse the term "flow of current" when they mean "current" or "flow of charge".

2) Electrons move through a conductor.  However, the direction is arbitrary; we pick a direction and as long as we are consistent, everything works out.  You have to be careful as different authors will use a different definition of direction, thus things can quickly get confusing.  Do a search on electron flow convention and you will see how much confusion this topic generates

3) Electrons move through a conductor, but their net displacement changes very slowly.  In other words, it takes a long time for an electron that enters one end of a wire to exit the other end.  Typically, we are interested in electric charge rather than actual electrons.

4) Be careful with the term "spin"... it has a specific meaning for electrons and isn't relevant to this topic (unless you want to get really deep into how we think things work).

If you really want to understand this, you need to start with Maxwell's equations.  It is not an easy topic.


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InvisibleStonehenge
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Re: How does electricity pass through a large solid conductor? [Re: Seuss]
    #19109956 - 11/09/13 11:12 AM (10 years, 3 months ago)

Seuss, are you saying electrons go in one end of the circuit and out the other? How on earth would you establish that? I agree with your statement overall but it sounded in part like you were agreeing with the "electrons flow all the way through the circuit" crowd.

If your answer is yes, then tell us how they get through a capacitor?


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“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.” (attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville political philosopher Circa 1835)

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OfflineSeussA
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Re: How does electricity pass through a large solid conductor? [Re: Stonehenge]
    #19110096 - 11/09/13 11:55 AM (10 years, 3 months ago)

> Seuss, are you saying electrons go in one end of the circuit and out the other?

It is well established that electrons move through a conductor.  See electron drift and electron mobility for in depth discussions.  I was not equating these concepts to charge flowing through a circuit.  I was careful to use the term "conductor" not "circuit".  When doing DC circuit analysis, a capacitor is treated as an open circuit.


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InvisibleStonehenge
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Re: How does electricity pass through a large solid conductor? [Re: Seuss]
    #19110424 - 11/09/13 01:34 PM (10 years, 3 months ago)

OK, your careful wording has convinced me. However, in an ac circuit current still flows so one must assume that the individual electrons do not make a complete path through the circuit. Or else they move kinda slowly. I alluded to that in my first post.

A slow day so we gotta discuss something.


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“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.” (attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville political philosopher Circa 1835)

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