Re: AC electricity

[Tom Ford <tomford@THESCIENCESOURCE.COM>]

For a physical analog, think of a whale swimming. Half the time there is an
upstroke and half the time a downstroke.

Back to the AC, look back to the discussions about listening to light. The
hum in the half-sooted pickle jar was at 120Hz because the lamp filament
temperature does not depend on the direction of electron flow, only magnitude.

Tom Ford

At 02:20 PM 1/17/01 -0400, you wrote:
> I know that AC delivers energy - that is obvious.
> But I still have trouble understanding how this is possible
> since half the time the potential is positve and the other
> have it is negative.  It seems they should cancel out.
> I know and can do the rms (root mean squared - although
> shouldn't it be squared mean root) for figuring out various
> quantities, but I still don't think I have a basic
> understanding on "how" it really works.