Ac current Definition and 92 Threads

( @jrmichler wrote to me: "SHEESH, more fearmongering. But please do not bring these conspiracy theories to PF." You write to wrong person, you and moderator of PF can send a email to scientists in WHO/International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and ask them why they make this...

Hello, I figured this belongs more in a physics thread than an electrical engineering thread, but please advise I am wrong. I am having a hard time finding the correlation between the amount of electric AC current flowing in a conductor and its affect on allowing an electric arc. Obviously the...

My assumption has been it is the electromagnetic field starting from the center of the wire that pushes the electrons outward. However, this would also be true of a DC current, but it isn't. So why does an AC current cause electrons to move toward the skin of a wire? I don't recall ever seeing...

So, if I get it right, the basic argument goes like this: AC was preferred to DC because its voltage can be stepped up by a transformer. This limits losses while the current is transported from the production plant to the final user. The voltage is subsequently stepped down when delivered to the...

The fact that the current changes in time should allow me to take it outside from the integral along the coil, since it is not a function of space. But I'm not sure about this assumption, is there something I'm missing or am i correct? Thanks

I always find voltage vs time majorly in case of AC current. What about current V time in AC current cases?

Hello, am kind of new to all the physics stuff , and kind a terrible at maths but am trying my best to be good at it one day .So i was told to answer this question When a direct current of 2A is passed through a coil, the potential difference across the coil is 20V. When an alternating current...

We write rms formula as $$v_{rms}=\sqrt\frac{\int_a^b[f(x)]^2dx}{|b-a|}$$ I know if we take arithmetic mean average voltage will be 0. So we want all voltage values to be positive. Why don't we do that: $$V_{average}=\frac{\int_a^b\sqrt{[f(x)]^2}dx}{|b-a|}$$ That's first what I did...

Sir how can one explain with the help of an analogy to a grade 10th student the reason behind not getting a shock on touching the neutral wire of the household AC circuit, even though the current flows alternately through live as well as neutral wires.

I understand Faraday's law and about induced electric fields created by a changing magnetic fields, etc. But what causes the current to oscillate in an LC circuit, with no battery? If you picture that there is current going into an inductor, and that current is decreasing over time, then you...

I'm having trouble figuring out how to solve Maxwell's equations for the electric field of an AC wire. I assume the Voltage waveform in the wire is 120sin(60t). This circuit only has a 14ohm heater in it, according to Ohm's law I=V/R. The current is equation to I(t)=120sin(60t)/14 It is...

I hoped to use a Keithley 2400 source meter to generate a ~120Hz AC signal by outputting a 2-point sweep from 1A to -1A on an infinite trigger. The waveform image is attached below. The end goal is a resistance measurement for bulk semiconductor materials, we prefer AC measurement to avoid...

Homework Statement An AC current is given by I= 475 sin( 9.43 t), with I in milliamperes and t in milliseconds. Find the frequency. Homework Equations w = 2pi*f The Attempt at a Solution I got 9.43/2pi which is 1.5 Hz, but that is wrong. I honestly have no idea what to do to find the Hz.

Hello Experts, I am a physics newbie with big ideas. I have a question. I am thinking about how to produce a zero Resistance Current. We know we can do this using super-conductors in sub zero temperature, but maybe there's another way. My assumptions (which could be wrong): 1) Resistance in a...

I'm looking for software that can simulate an ac circuit. After a quick google, I found several free online services (which I will try out). What I was wondering though is if anyone had some advice concerning my selection. A brief list of requirements: accurate simulation of different conductor...

I'm a 2nd year Physics student! I want to learn electricity from it's absolute basics! Like AC current, how it is formed, where is formed etc. Please suggest me books which will tell me about the theory in details along with required mathematics too!

I have a technical question, for research purposes. I have LED that we probe in AC mode. To measure the applied voltage in AC and the light-response in AC is no problem. However I would like to measure the current going through the device as well and I would like to link it to an oscilloscope...

Please help me with this. I am having a hard time understanding the role of displacement currents in a circus. The common knowledge is actual current is the movement of electron in a circus. Now, if there is a gap and an AC source, there would be an electric displacement field and a displacement...

I need guidance in the explanation of utilizing LED light bars for a different function then designed. I do stage production, sound and lights for concerts and would like to adapt these LED light bars to "blind" to crowd. My issue is that each light bar operates 12-30 Volts DC @ 300 Watts. In...

Hello Physics Forums, this is my first post! I wanted to know how the current electrical grid system works. I mean, not in terms of creation, transmission, and distribution, but rather, how you would draw it on a circuit diagram. I understand that an AC current is generated at the power factory...

Hi there everyone, I'm doing some study on electronics and the section on the advantages of A/C over DC mentioned that AC has less copper loss (I^2 x R), But to me this seems contradictory to the skin effect. Could someone please tell me why AC has less copper loss.

When a supercooled type two superconductor is subjected to a static magnetic field, the superconductor pins to the flux of the field (the mixed-state meissner effect is apparent). What happens if it is subjected to a continuously changing magnetic field, assuming the superconductivity takes...

A conductor with a large high frequency AC current causes a "Skin Effect" meaning that most of the current flows at the surface of the conductor. What does the skin effect look like if you have a conductor with one side flattened? And what does the resulting magnetic field look like? See...

I heard about a research where ac current is generared in metal covered nanotubes exposed to visible light, the same way as it does in receiving tv antennas. Isn't there a limit to how quickly electrons can accelerate on a metal surface (because of inertia and maybe some extra factors) to...

Hello there. i would like to request some help please in the design of my meditation pyramid. If you can help me out i'd be greatly appreciative thank you. I would like to set up an 8 hertz oscillating magnetic cycle around the pyramid. Why? because i wish to entrain higher alpha brainwave...

I'm a high school physics student. I want to do an experiment to see what happens when a high frequency alternating current goes through a magnet. To create the high frequency alternating current could a photo resistor do that for me? Does the photo-resistor create an alternating current with a...

Hi, my Voltage Multiplier Simulation does not work properly the first transformer is working just fine, the second one does not really seems to work, for the second transformer i tried to creat AC current with a mosfet, but i think I am doing it wrong :/, can you give me some tips how to...

If we have a source of AC current with two terminals ( A and B ). We connect a device with this source. Now we say that one wire is live and other is neutral. But my question is that, how one wire is neutral. As we say that in AC current the terminals change the polarity. Its mean that some...

So my question is simple. If the current doesn't change sign, is it considered AC or DC? I seem to recall we called it DC when I briefly saw it. However after a quick google search I'm confused. Some said that for example an AC signal offset with a DC signal to show this behaviour should be...

Hello Everyone, I have wondered about this for a while but have not found a book or article that deals with this topic. Two wires carrying DC currents directed in the same direction attract each other (repel if the currents go in opposite directions). What happens if the currents in the two...

Homework Statement A metal wire with 1023 free electrons per cubic centimeter is carrying 60 Hz alternating current with a maximum current density of 100 amps/cm2. a) Write an expression for the average electron drift velocity as a function of time (vd as a function of time). b) What is the...

Hello. I've recently have a lot of question of building Faraday cage for our high voltage gas discharge lab. I think this question is a kind of fundamental question for such a job. Let's say I would make perfect Faraday cage with perfect shielding or have metal plate of infinity transverse...

Homework Statement The following coil-wound core (core length = L , Gap length = lg, cross- sectional area = A , core permeability = only hysteresis graph is given, N = N turns) is driven by a Voltage source, is known that the current in the coil is 60hz AC. Determine...

Hi everybody, As part of my research at UCSD, we are trying to measure Hall resistance of some materials. And to do that we need to send an AC current. So I wondered how we could easily build an ac current source, probably based on op-amp. I know there is the Howland circuit (current pump), but...

I've been reading up about vacuum tubes and (more specifically) the Audion, and how they were used for instruments/amplifiers. This isn't anything I'm learning about on my degree, just things I'm reading up on myself so forgive me if I'm a little slow to grasp some parts. I understand how the...

Hello, I have forgotten most of the electricity physics we studied and I have problem describing/understanding a concept. Does AC current produce less loss than a DC current? I found this statement in a website: "AC electricity loses less power over power lines than DC"...

Thanks

I wonder if AC current follows Sin wave and go through negative and positive cycles alternately, why don't AC equipments, like a bulb, get off and on - off and on...

How to increase or decrease the frequency of AC current linearly? Suggest me some ideas

How does AC current "reach" its load? If the electrons/fields/charges are oscillating (reversing direction 50 or 60 times per second) instead of traveling in one direction like DC does, how does current flow and reach the load in a circuit? I have read some articles but couldn't find an answers...

Homework Statement Hi, I already asked a question close to this, but now I have different conditions. This is the circuit C_1 = C_2 \\ R_1= R_2 The current is an AC , and I would like to know the voltage at R_1 and at R_2 I made some progress but I do not really know hot to continue...

is skin effect of ac due to eddy current?

Hello. I'm floundering. What is the right way to formulate a problem of calculating the current density distribution across the wire's cross-setion, taking into account eddy currents? If the Maxwell's equations are not the way to go, what is? What should be the boundary conditions or any...

Hi, Thank you for reading this. I understand the functioning of DC current. You create a potential difference and the electrons flow from the power source through the electrical appliance (thereby, powering it) and flows back, completing the circuit. But, in AC, the electrons...

In my class we did an experiment where we measured the flicker frequency of an incandescent bulb and a CFL bulb (powered by a 60hz wall plug) using a photodiode and a oscilloscope. We were then asked some questions about the sinusoidal curves that were produced. 1. The incandescent...

Is there a simple way to "make" static electricity from an AC outlet? Looking for a way to make my hair stand (what is left of it) on its end for an experiment. Thanks for your comments in advance.

Hello physics friends! I have a question about AC current I hope you can help me understand. So I know that putting AC through a transformer will raise or lower the voltage, but because power has to be kept constant, the current changes in the opposite direction. But according to Ohm's law...

Hello, I am wondering, why conceptually an inductor would have a large inductive reactance at high frequencies, and why they are large for capacitors are low frequencies.

I was thinking whether it was possible to shield a portion of a circuit that has only a single conductor without a return path. The frequency is high enough for the Earth's capacitive impedance to be low. Is my assumption then correct that the induced voltage in the shield will create a...

I know that in AC the current switches between +ve and -ve 50 times a second in the case of mains electricity for the UK. However I was confused about how it alternates, as in when it swtiches how far do the electrons travel before it switches again. I was also told that in a circuit the...