You approach this from physics perspective, which will give a complete (but complex) understanding.
For the most part, simple electrical circuits may be more easily understood without referring to the "speed" of electrons. After all, where is the variable for electron speed in Ohm's law? Of course, when we get into actual electrolysis in the CS cell, we have to ask you about it... ;-)) Dan > -----Original Message----- > From: Marshall Dudley [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Monday, September 15, 2008 10:18 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: CS>Thinking about current flow: for Neville > > Malcolm wrote: > > Ummm, > > > > On Fri, 2008-09-12 at 15:36 -0005, M. G. Devour wrote: > > > >> Dear Neville, > > > The number of electrons inside a wire is constant, and > independent of any voltage on the wire, it will be equal to > the number of protons in the nucleus, always. Now if you put > high voltage on a wire, the number of electrons on the > surface will vary due to the capacitance effects on the > surface, but this is trivial compared to the number of > electrons inside the wire. If what you were saying were > true, then applying a positive voltage to a wire that is > grounded would result in a reduction of current as the > voltage is increased, since that would result in fewer > electrons in the wire. Ohms law is correct whether the wire > has a positive voltage or negative voltage on it since the > voltage on a wire has no effect on the number of carriers > inside the wire. It only affects their average velocity. > Think in terms of a pipe with water. > Adding pressure does not change the amount of water in the > pipe, except by any little amount the pipe stretches, but > adding pressure drop from one end of the pipe to the other > changes the velocity of the water in the pipe, thus the flow > increases. Voltage equals pressure, current equals flow. > > It is actually pretty simply to do the math. An electron > experiences a pull when in an electric field. This pull is > the vector product of the voltage gradient and the charge on > the electron. The electron experiences an acceleration which > is mathematically equal to this force divided by the mass of > the electron. However before it has gone far, it bumps into > an atom, and loses it's velocity, and the kinetic energy is > converted to heat. This is what give wire resistance. Now if > you can couple the electrons together into pairs, they can > actually flow without bumping into the atoms, and that is how > a superconductor, which has no resistance, works. > > Marshall > > Marshall -- The Silver List is a moderated forum for discussing Colloidal Silver. Instructions for unsubscribing are posted at: http://silverlist.org To post, address your message to: [email protected] Address Off-Topic messages to: [email protected] The Silver List and Off Topic List archives are currently down... List maintainer: Mike Devour <[email protected]>
