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Re: TC Electrostatics (fwd)



1/3/96

Ed wrote in response to RH: 
>
>> Subject: Re: TC Electrostatics (fwd)

snip 

>
>> I have come to understand there is a vast difference between true 
>> POTENTIAL (electrostatic only), static charge and forces as compared 
>>to the voltage "pressure" found in a dynamic battery within a 
>>circuit.  Also the coulomb of the AMpere definition has no relation 
>>(not even the most  tenuous) to the coulomb of electrostatic charge!! 
>> The difference is one of current flow and magnetic field generation 
>>and the two seem unrelated in spite of attempts to link them.  Yet, 
>>the temptation to link them  remains even in my mind.  I can find no 
>>electric field about a current carryng wire.
>
>Hi Richard,
>
>There seems to be some fundamental difference in our perspectives.
>Everything you have reported about your experiments seems to be ok. 
>But our interpertations is completely different. Your results are 
>perfectly consistent with my "old fashioned" understanding of 
>electromagnetism.                                                     

>1 ampere of current though a wire will generate a magnetic field 
>outside of that wire, but any electric fields will only be parallel to 
>the axis of the wire (since the chareges follow the electric field by 
>ohms law). Now Richard is asking why does this 1 coulomb per second of 
>charge NOT generate a perceptible electric field around and 
>perpendiclar to the wire axis just as an "electrostatic" charge would. 
>Is does not in this case because no NET charge is gained by the wire 
>as in the electrostaic case. 1 coulomb per second goes into the wire 
>as 1 coulomb per second leaves the wire.  Therefore there is no NET 
>charge on the wire.

snip

> -Ed Harris
>

Ed, 

I believe you are in error above in stating " . . . but any electric 
fields will only be parallel to the axis of the wire . . ."  In an 
electrodynamic circuit the electric field is perpendicular to the axis 
of the conductor.

For a discription, imagine a round black dot drawn on a paper.  Around 
the dot draw multiple concentric circles and also multiple radial lines 
out from the dot.  If the dot represents a cross section of the 
conductor with the conductor going into and coming out of the paper, 
the concentric circles represent magnetic field lines of force and the 
radial lines represent electric field lines.  The electric field 
radiates out perpendicular to the longitudnal axis of the conductor.

This description is by Charles Steinmetz for electrodynamic currents in 
a conductor.  It seems not to support your interpretation of these 
experimental results.

RWW