----- Original Message -----
From: "M. G. Devour" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, September 12, 2008 10:48 PM
Subject: CS>Thinking about current flow: for Neville
[In metals and other good conductors, the medium by which current flows
is usually moving electrons. They sort of pick themselves up and glide
along the atomic lattice of the metal from atom to atom, while the
nuclei of the metal atoms stay locked in place by various atomic
forces. So it's reasonable to state that electrons are flowing from the
negative terminal of your battery, through the wires and load, and back
to the positive terminal. ]
OK, so in this case we do have a directional 'flow', of sorts, yep got that.
Actually saw a schematic of that on that Marshall mesh thing so I do believe
I know where you are going there. (Lucky I started reading that on Chucks
suggestion!).
[The actual linear velocity of the electrons within the wire is
proportional to the current: Zero with the switch off, and limited by
ohm's law, ie. total circuit resistance and voltage, when on.]
As a simple example...the higher the current, the quicker the 'flow',
(forgetting ohms law for the moment)... yes?
[However, the *effect* of the voltage pushing your electrons propagates
at close to the speed of light around your circuit, as the pressure
caused by the applied voltage propagates through the cloud of electrons
in the metal.]
Yep, I can picture that from the aforesaid Marshall diagram. The higher the
voltage, the higher 'pressure', the...I think I'll stop there for the
moment.
[As it turns out the *convention* of current flow from plus to minus was
created before they figured out what was actually carrying the current,
and stuck, as tradition often does.]
OK, now we come to the better bit. Traditional thinking, (of old perhaps),
supposes that 'something moves, or travels' in a particular fashion...up and
down, left to right, right to left, over and under, plus to minus...and so
it was 'supposed' this was the case with electricity 'moving or travelling'
from positive to negative or negative to positive... yes? Sorry, I sort of
can't explain that any better.<g> Electricity being an unknown entity if you
like.
[Of course, there are materials other than metals that can carry
current, including semiconductors like they make transistors, diodes,
and integrated circuits with, and, as in our case, water in an
electrolysis cell.]
Now, by this I assume you are referring to current 'travelling' from a
starting point, on one end of a circuit board as an example, and
'travelling' along the 'circuits' to the other end of the board,
'directional' if you like...yes?
[In semiconductors you may have electrons flowing, as in conductors, or
you may need to consider "holes" or the absence of an electron in the
crystal lattice of the material, flowing in the opposite direction.]
Nup, I'll just skip this one for the time being.
Yes the current is still actually carried by moving electrons around,
but for reasons understood by the physicists, materials scientists, and
engineers who design these things, hole current may be important. Hole
current is generally not important to us, however. <grin>
Yeah, I am still picturing the schematic of Marshall...yes? but I'm
skipping the 'hole' thing!
[Now, in water, you may actually have both electrons flowing *and* atoms
or molecules of the solvent (water) or solutes (silver or salt, or
whatever) flowing in different directions...]
Now don't anyone freak out here but in my language this would
be...'electricity travelling' between the two electrodes, but in combination
with silver, water molecules and any impurities which may be in the water
which would be affected by the 'electricity', and these molecules etc would
be 'drifting' in the water...yes? Stay with me here if you can, I'll get
proper terminologies down better later on.
Electrons will still flow from your battery's negative terminal,
through the wire to the negative electrode, through the water to your
positive electrode, then back through the wire to the battery positive
terminal.
Yes, I know what's happening there now, but now we are talking of
'direction' again, from negative to positive. This was my suggestion some
time ago when I said I had read that 'electricity', or 'current', is
'pushed' so to speak, out from the negative and returned through the
positive. See what I mean? Or is it that we don't use the 'positive and
negative' terminology when water is the electrical current transfer
medium...circuit boards require 'direction' if you like whereas water just
'completes' a circuit with no particular 'direction'. Like my analogy of a
stop valve in the clock circle, or water pipe circle, the current is
apparent when the valve is opened, but not apparent when the valve is
closed...hence, the positive and/or negative terminology is not used in this
case...yes? Be patient!
<snip, snip, snip>
That will be enough for now I think.
N.
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