DIYbanter - View Single Post - Can improper wiring actually cause a fire?

Doug Miller

In article .com, wrote:

You, however, seem to be unclear on the concept of skin depth.

Skin depth is a measure of the depth to which the electric field
penetrates the material. It is not, as you seem to believe, the
depth at which the current flows.

Speaking of unclear on the concept... an electric field is simply a field in
which work is done on an electric charge -- IOW, where current flows.

IOW, you're wrong.

You might want to grab yourself a high school physics text and [re]acquaint
yourself with a few concepts before you so glibly assure CW that he's
mistaken. First, it's *static* charge that resides on the surface of a
conductor, *not* electric current. Second, the cloud of free electrons in a
metal extends throughout it, rather than being confined to the surface.

Finally, you might want to ask yourself why the NEC-permitted ampacity of
conductors below about 4/0 is [roughly] proportional to their cross-sectional
area, not their diameter.

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again.