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Re: Current in a wire



An excellent explanation of this is found in "Electric and Magnetic Interactions"
by Chabay and Sherwood, Preliminary Second Edition, WILEY. The charge
that moves is the electron sea, the valence electrons. These electrons are
distributed evenly througout the metal. You can see this from the formula for
the current, I = enAv where n is the density of free electons in the metal. These
electrons see a non-zero electric field due to some excess charge distributed in
a non-uniform way on the surface of the metals. Articles should appear shortly
in Physics Teacher and AJP showing the actual distribution of the charges on the
wires for a few specific circuits.
Don Boys, Physics
University of Michigan-Flint
303 E. Kearsley
Flint MI 48502
(810) 762-3397; FAX (810) 766-6780
dboys@flint.umich.edu