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Current in a wire



Hi Folks,
I'm in a bit of confusion now about the movement of charge (electrons) in a wire. My belief is that if a wire were connected to some sort of emf current should flow throughout the entire wire. I have a colleague in electronics who maintains that the charge travels only on the exterior surface of the conductor.
As I think of the stranded wire in my house I think of speaker wire etc that might experiece a high frequency alterration of the emf and thus current, does most of the charge that moves at high frequency prefer the external surface of the wire?

And what about resistance being proportional to the cross sectional area. Shouldn't that support the concept that the field is set up throughout the conductor?

Please forward any thoughts on the issue. Thanks.

John