[PLUG-TALK] Volts, Amps, Coulombs (was ... help Acer Laptop)

[Russell Senior]

>>>>> "Keith" == Keith Lofstrom <keithl at kl-ic.com> writes:

Keith> P.S.: Electric charge moves slowly?  A meter of #12 copper wire
Keith> weighs 29.4 grams, and contains 123,000 coulombs of free
Keith> electrons, with a mass of 1.8 micrograms.  If you put 10 amps
Keith> through the wire, then the average electron flows at 29
Keith> centimeters per hour.  Again, it is the voltage waves that move
Keith> at the speed of light.  So the electricity flowing into your
Keith> house at 60Hz is actually just sloshing in and out by about 1
Keith> micron, though the pressure waves travel through the house in
Keith> microseconds.  Hard to imagine, huh?  Physics is fun...

There is a joke among power engineers about an imaginary (or, possibly
real) customer who writes an angry letter after he finds out the
utility has been selling him the same electrons over and over again.
Now you are telling me the electrons never left the customer's house
to begin with!  Where is my manual typewriter!


-- 
Russell Senior         ``I have nine fingers; you have ten.''
seniorr at aracnet.com