> ...mistaken belief that energy flows out of a battery through one wire, then flows back through the other. The charges do this, while instead the energy flows along both wires in one direction, from source to load.
Has somebody a good visual analogy for this in another medium?
I mean I know that this is a case but I can not visualize the energy flowing on both sides out of the source with the medium only moving out on one side.
I will try for myself:
Say I pump a lot of water in a circle by moving a pump by hand. I put some energy into the system. By pumping I push water molecues out one side of the pump and pulling them in on the other side. That creates a pressure difference inside the water. Even if I pump the water really slow, that pressure difference propagte with the speed of sound through the water. That pressure difference is positive one the one side of the pump (water is pushed) and negative on the other side (water is pulled). Somewhere on the other side of the pipe circle the pressure differences meet cancel each other out. So the pressure difference is the energy moving through the system in both directions. But the water itself only moves in one direction.
But now we have two kinds if energy in the system. The pressure wave and the kinetic energy of the water.
If I keep pumping the water will speed up faster and faster. I guess that's the analog to a glowing wire.
But if a put a turbine into the water the flow of water will be slowed down because the kinetic energy of the water is extracted by the turbine.
Now if the water is at rest and the turbine as well and I now start pumping the pressure difference will flow in both directions to the turbine. It will start spinning as soon as the pressure differences meet there.
If the turbine is not opposite to the pump the pressure differences will take different amounts of time to reach it. But the turbine will already start moving when hit by the first pressure difference by absorbing it the (pressure wave stops there) and then latter be hit by opposite pressure difference and move again.
So far correct?
So in an ideal system the water would not move at all but only the pressure difference would propagate and be consumed by the turbine.
But that would mean that the turbine energy leaves the system completely -> the turbine does not even turn because it's energy is 100% extracted by it's consumer.
So in this example flowing water always represents some kind of loss/inefficency.
The goal would be to maximize the pressure difference to propagate but the minimze the water flowing.
Is this how you could explain alternating current for transportation of energy?
> Has somebody a good visual analogy for this in another medium? I mean I know that this is a case but I can not visualize the energy flowing on both sides out of the source with the medium only moving out on one side.
Imagine that for some insane reason, you set up a pipe underwater. On one end of the pipe you put a pump that pushes water into the pipe. At the other end of the pipe, you put a vacuum that sucks water out. In the middle of it, you put a turbine that powers a lightbulb. When you turn it on, energy flows from the pump to the turbine because the pump pushes the water. Energy also flows from the vacuum to the turbine because it sucks water out.
Batteries work like that, but with electrons as the medium. Negatively charged particles repel electrons, and positively charged ones attract it. So when you make a circuit, the negative terminal pushes electrons away from it and the positive terminal pulls them, resulting in both sides giving energy to the load.
> Is this how you could explain alternating current for transportation of energy?
This part I don't grasp super well, but I'll take a stab. It's a higher level thing. Resistive losses are relative to the current squared. So you want low current. But you need to deliver a lot of power, so you have to raise the voltage. Normal people's homes can't handle 200,000V power, so you have to convert it back to a lower voltage before you put it in people's homes. The cheapest/easiest way to do that is with a transformer, which requires a varying current (i.e. no DC).
Maybe you're missing a key part: all wires are already full of electricity (full of electrons.) When a current starts up, it's the wires' electrons which start moving. In a circuit, no electricity is created and no electricity is destroyed, instead it just flows around in a complete circle.
So, when energy moves from a battery and flows outwards on both wires, also the "medium" is flowing inwards on one wire, outwards on the other.
An electric circuit is like a leather drive-belt. A generator is like a pulley.
When we force the pulley to turn, the entire drive-belt must turn also. The electrons are the leather, and they go slowly in a circle. But the "work" or the "horsepower" zips instantly along the belt, moving fast as the belt moves slow.
And, if we WIGGLE the first pulley, the belt also wiggles back and forth. Yet the "work" only flys outwards from the pulley, zooming off into the distance, regardless of which way the belt is turning.
That seems reasonable - a hydraulic system has to have a low pressure return. Your "pressure waves" correspond to the EM field waves that carry data signals; you get one in a DC circuit when you make or break a connection.
> Is this how you could explain alternating current for transportation of energy?
It seems like a reasonable model for DC. For AC you have to account for the repeated change in direction, which just looks odd in a hydraulic system because the medium has so much inertia.
Has somebody a good visual analogy for this in another medium? I mean I know that this is a case but I can not visualize the energy flowing on both sides out of the source with the medium only moving out on one side.
I will try for myself:
Say I pump a lot of water in a circle by moving a pump by hand. I put some energy into the system. By pumping I push water molecues out one side of the pump and pulling them in on the other side. That creates a pressure difference inside the water. Even if I pump the water really slow, that pressure difference propagte with the speed of sound through the water. That pressure difference is positive one the one side of the pump (water is pushed) and negative on the other side (water is pulled). Somewhere on the other side of the pipe circle the pressure differences meet cancel each other out. So the pressure difference is the energy moving through the system in both directions. But the water itself only moves in one direction. But now we have two kinds if energy in the system. The pressure wave and the kinetic energy of the water. If I keep pumping the water will speed up faster and faster. I guess that's the analog to a glowing wire. But if a put a turbine into the water the flow of water will be slowed down because the kinetic energy of the water is extracted by the turbine. Now if the water is at rest and the turbine as well and I now start pumping the pressure difference will flow in both directions to the turbine. It will start spinning as soon as the pressure differences meet there. If the turbine is not opposite to the pump the pressure differences will take different amounts of time to reach it. But the turbine will already start moving when hit by the first pressure difference by absorbing it the (pressure wave stops there) and then latter be hit by opposite pressure difference and move again.
So far correct?
So in an ideal system the water would not move at all but only the pressure difference would propagate and be consumed by the turbine. But that would mean that the turbine energy leaves the system completely -> the turbine does not even turn because it's energy is 100% extracted by it's consumer.
So in this example flowing water always represents some kind of loss/inefficency. The goal would be to maximize the pressure difference to propagate but the minimze the water flowing.
Is this how you could explain alternating current for transportation of energy?