this post was submitted on 01 Feb 2026
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Science Memes

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[–] LouNeko@lemmy.world 41 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Whats crazier is that in direct current individual electrons don't travel at the speed of light through the conductor, but only at roughly 1cm/s.

Or, that thanks to the "skin effect" the current actualy travels in a very thin layer below the outside surface of cconductor. Most of the conductor doesn't transfer power but only maintains the magnetic field to keep the current flowing.

[–] dukatos@lemmy.zip 9 points 1 week ago

No, skin effect only occurs on higher frequencies. That is why coaxial cabel is invented. But then they realized the energy in coax transfers in a completely different way.

[–] Tattorack@lemmy.world -4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That's why you don't have one thick copper cable but multiple thin ones.

[–] meekah@discuss.tchncs.de 16 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I'm far from an expert, but that's usually just for flexibility of the cable as far as I understand. Power wires inside the walls are one thick copper wire (or rather three for live, neutral and ground)

[–] ijustliketrains@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

Correct, solid copper bus bars are also common in certain applications.