1 of 7 The Electrical Circuit (2min:49sec)

[@dalenassar9152]

It's called "drift velocity" (the actual SLOW current that does the work, whose speed is directly proportional to amperage even many amps, AC or DC, move electrons at a snails pace.) vs "random thermal motion", which is the high speed, I think somewhere around 10's of thousands of meters/second, movement of electrons that move in direct proportion to temperature--this even occurs in a wire segment lying on the ground. An extra: The average drift velocity of AC current is actually ZERO, since, taken as + / - electron velocity (over a scale of, say, 10ms) just oscillates back and forth over TINY lengths of wire. Another thing that may be taken into account is the "SKIN EFFECT" (directly proportional to frequency--includes pulses) which already becomes significant at frequencies as low as 60Hz. The higher the frequency, the more the current is restricted to the outer portions of the wire. In the kHz range, the current is ALL practically flowing along ONLY the surface of the conductor! NOT even deep enough to hit significantly into the nerve depth of a human. This is why you see 100's of thousands of volts at high frequency (which looks like lightning) pass harmlessly through a human body which is completing the circuit via both hands. The high frequency "lightning" is actually jumping into one hand and out of the other as it completes the current path. THERE IS A DANGER IN SOME INSTANCES: Usually NEARBY 60Hz is stepped up in a resonant high voltage/frequency device (like a Tesla Coil), and if some king of "pseudo lightning ring" is not installed (to divert a stray strike away from the 60Hz area) The sparks could contain lethal 60Hz components. It is my opinion that real lightning ground strikes may become contaminated with the lethal 60Hz from overhead power lines. Additionally, these lines carry much more than 240VAC.

[@gfy2979]

But when we are talking about utility systems, why does the neutral ultimately go to a grounding rod? There does not seem to be a path all the way back to a power station...

[@MandrewP]

The neutral does not go to a grounding rod. The grounding rod goes to the neutral. The neutral does not need the ground rod in any way or form in order to perform it's function. You could remove the ground rod from the neutral and it would make no difference whatsoever in the functioning of the neutral or the electrical system. The function of the ground rod is a completely separate thing from the function of the electrical circuit. The connection of the ground rod to the electrical circuit is just to provide a path to the earth for static electrical charges (nature's electricity) to get to where they want to go - the earth. Man made electricity has no relation to the earth at all, only nature's electricity does (static charges and lighting). Without the earth connection, static electricity would build up on the mile or two of wiring in a house and produce high voltages that could damage motor winding and other things. It also helps reduce high voltage spikes when lighting strikes nearby. That is basically all the connection to the earth is about. In the early days of electricity they didn't even use a connection to the earth. But they got tired of buying new motors and transformers so they connected the wiring system to the earth to solve the problem. To see how the neutral makes it back to the power station you would have to understand how transformers work. For all practical intents and purposes, you can look at the secondary of the transformer that feeds your house as the "power station". The secondary can be looked at as the source of power to which all current supplied has to return to.

[@onion8216]

Thank you​@@MandrewP

[@harryexharalambie5772]

In your Understanding Basic Electricity book, it says "we call the movement of electrons... electricity"and "electric current is unseen movement of electrons" So you know that electrons travel few inches/hr , and electric charge closer to speed of light. Wouldn't be more correct to say electricity is the movement of electric charges; and movement of electric charges using electrons as charge carriers electric current?

[@MikeHoltNEC]

Please get me a document that contains the suggested text.

[@harryexharalambie5772]

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