Electricity

[Brainee]

How does electricity "flow"? For example in a setup with battery, wires and light bulb.

[studiot]

4 minutes ago, Brainee said:

How does electricity "flow"? For example in a setup with battery, wires and light bulb.

It doesn't.

The hosepipe analogy is best forgotten.

[Mordred]

13 minutes ago, studiot said:

It doesn't.

The hosepipe analogy is best forgotten.

to add to this your better of following the flow of charge

[Brainee]

I have heard that in the setup with battery, wires and light bulb, it is electric and magnetic fields that light the bulb. How does it do this field "move" between the battery, wires and the light bulb?

[Sensei]

3 minutes ago, Mordred said:

to add to this your better of following the flow of charge

What does this change? The charge is just a property of the particles that participated in the whole action.. Q=Ne

In the end, the charge is const.

 

[Mordred]

Just now, Sensei said:

What does this change? The charge is just a property of the particles that participated in the whole action.. Q=Ne

In the end, the charge is const.

 

its more commonly used in electrical and electronic textbooks for one thing. Also if the poster is a student his physics class in Highschool will specify flow of charge and not flow of electrons which propogate through a medium at different rates

[Sensei]

4 minutes ago, Brainee said:

I have heard that in the setup with battery, wires and light bulb, it is electric and magnetic fields that light the bulb. How does it do this field "move" between the battery, wires and the light bulb?

"Full battery" has charges (electrons) with a certain amount of energy..

"Empty battery" has charges (electrons) that released this energy..

 

Connect the plus electrode with the minus electrode and you will have fire or so.. because of the extensive release of energy in a short period of time..

 

[Brainee]

I am wondering this because electrons do not move enough to make a circuit.

[Mordred]

You are correct the electrons do move slow in an electric wire, hence it is the flow of charge that moves near c.

https://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/circuits/Lesson-2/Electric-Current

here.

In the EM field the force carrier is photons. When photons i interacts with an electron, the energy of the photon can be transferred to an electron as potential energy. When the electron loses potential energy, the electron can account for the energy difference by emitting a photon. This is under QM treatment 

Edited December 11, 2022 by Mordred

[studiot]

13 hours ago, Brainee said:

I have heard that in the setup with battery, wires and light bulb, it is electric and magnetic fields that light the bulb. How does it do this field "move" between the battery, wires and the light bulb?

 

12 hours ago, Brainee said:

I am wondering this because electrons do not move enough to make a circuit.

 

This next comment is very important.

The Physics an Chemistry of how what we call electricity is very difficult and complicated.
Futhermore there is not one single mechanism, but several.
And they all have a part to play.

As a result, abstract models of how thing behave were developed, models that show measurable quantities like voltage, current and so on.
These models are called circuit theory and are set in the mathematics of the relationships between the various measurable quantities.

Have you heard of Ohm's Law ?

Of course since they are both approaches about the same thing there is a lot of overlap and common stuuf involved.

But there are also important differences and flow is one of those differences.

Flow appears in artificial abstract circuit theory, but not really in a physical description of what is actually happening.
And flow refers to flow of charge, as Mordred said, or current which literally means flow of charge in electricity theory.

Anyway the important thing to remember is to know which version you are using.

 

You ask about electric and magnetic fields, so it is important to know just what a field refers to.

A field occurs in a region of space (along a line, on an area or in a volume) for which some quantity has a single  defined value at every point in the region.

The defined quantity may belong to matter or be totally abstract.

So a temperature field or a density field are both about properties of matter that can vary from point to point.

A placement of arrows on a weather chart showing which way the wind is blowing and where is purely abstract and called a direction field.

An electric field shows the strength of attraction (as a force) that would be felt by a unit electric charge at any point.

A magnetic field shows the strength of attraction (as a force) that would be felt by a unit magnet at any point.

Neither of these are used much in circuit theory, but both have lots of different uses in Physics and Chemistry, often where there is no circuit involved at all.

[Mordred]

Good coverage Studiot +1

[studiot]

1 minute ago, Mordred said:

Good coverage Studiot +1

Thanks.

BTW, I'm not sure brainee has much access to high school education ( that's no criticism) but is trying to get an education the really hard way.

[Mordred]

1 minute ago, studiot said:

Thanks.

BTW, I'm not sure brainee has much access to high school education ( that's no criticism) but is trying to get an education the really hard way.

That's the impression I have as well hence trying to keep my answers applicable to how it's taught in high school aka flow of charge. 

[Brainee]

On 12/11/2022 at 4:10 PM, studiot said:

BTW, I'm not sure brainee has much access to high school education ( that's no criticism) but is trying to get an education the really hard way.

 

On 12/11/2022 at 4:13 PM, Mordred said:

That's the impression I have as well hence trying to keep my answers applicable to how it's taught in high school aka flow of charge. 

How do you get an education the easy way?

[Genady]

10 minutes ago, Brainee said:

 

How do you get an education the easy way?

I'd recommend, reading. A lot of reading.

[exchemist]

14 minutes ago, Brainee said:

 

How do you get an education the easy way?

Attend a good school (there may not be much you can do about that, I realise), pay attention and ask questions in class, do your homework diligently - and ideally read a bit around the topics for yourself if you are curious. The best students show curiosity - which you seem to have. 

[Mordred]

attending a school is the best way short of that one  an work through numerous textbooks choose ones with practice problems.