[newguy357]

Praytell, do you know why?

Specifically why electrons flow on the surface, and not so much down the middle of a conductor....?

Uhhh, yes. Just like anyone who has taken freshman physics in the last 100 years should. It is taught in the EM portion of freshman physics. It is quite intuitive. Visualize a spherical conductor. Remove an electron from the center. What happens? An electric field is set up from that positive charge. What happens because of that? One of the free flowing electrons in this conductor will move along that electric field into the center where the previous electron was vacated, thus negating the original electric field but creating a new one further out (radially) of the same magnitude as the original. That causes an electron from further out to repeat the above. Do that many times and pretty soon all your charge is on the surface. That is basic physics and no one has questioned it for a century.

[Cold Heat]

Uhhh, yes. Just like anyone who has taken freshman physics in the last 100 years should. It is taught in the EM portion of freshman physics. It is quite intuitive. Visualize a spherical conductor. Remove an electron from the center. What happens? An electric field is set up from that positive charge. What happens because of that? One of the free flowing electrons in this conductor will move along that electric field into the center where the previous electron was vacated, thus negating the original electric field but creating a new one further out (radially) of the same magnitude as the original. That causes an electron from further out to repeat the above. Do that many times and pretty soon all your charge is on the surface. That is basic physics and no one has questioned it for a century.

Hmmmmmm, I don't think that is the explanation for the surface flow. It explains the basic phsysics of the flow of electrons, but not the type of flow and why it behaves in specific ways..

The logical explanations have been varied, but the flow of electricity basically starts out as a turbulent and chaotic flow, just as a liquid flows within a pipe. As time progresses and we add Milli seconds to the event, the chaos that tends to expand outward creates a laminar flow on the outside of the conductor, or in liquids, the pipe. laminar flow allows for a more efficient flow rate and less resistance. This is why multi-stranded conductors are less resistive, creating less heat than the solid variety.

This is the layman's explanation that we use in the field where we know that electricity, like a liquid, seeks the path of least Resistance on it's own. And no, we have not known this for a hundred years. And no, it is not that simple. we are constantly trying to improve wiring methods, and the field procedures we use to improve the process, just as they do in fluid mechanics by improving valve and piping designs.

Efficiency is the game, and with improved efficiency we lower costs and reduce weight. we are constantly learning, and nobody can tell me that we know all there is to know. Except maybe a engineer, because they tend to do that all the time.....:-)

There is constant friction between the field and the guys with the pencils...There is no formula, that I have ever been aware of that describes and can predict the efficiency of the flow, but over time we have made note of the better wire and cable designs as far as number of conductors on the bundle vs the conductor size required. wire engineers have this at their figertips, and I simply pick from the best quality based on practical experience.

I am the guy in the field who has to build the stuff the engineer conceives on paper...I usually do a pretty fair job of smoothing out the bumps between concept and reality, but it is not easy. Only 35 years ago, we had this all wrong, and were building electrical distribution systems that were faulty and could have been much better. We are constantly improving, and by no means do we understand it all.

That is why I responded to your claims. The mind set should be that we know that we don't know everything. Not that we do....Electricity is certainly no exception.