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FREEDGUY 
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Joined: 15 Apr 2017
Location: South West Mich
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 Topic: Electrical ??
Posted: 29 May 2021 at 7:13pm |
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How fast (MPH) does electricity move from point "A" to point "B" (120-240 single phase) between the switch and the component? How about the utility lines running down the roads ? Thanks
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steve(ill)
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Location: illinois
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Posted: 29 May 2021 at 7:39pm |
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about the speed of light... 600 MILLION miles per hour ............ of course this is AC current so it is a WAVE moving thru the wire.
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Like them all, but love the "B"s.
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jaybmiller
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Joined: 12 Sep 2009
Location: Greensville,Ont
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Posted: 29 May 2021 at 7:46pm |
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ok, curious am I, why the question ?
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3 D-14s,A-C forklift, B-112
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Never burn your bridges, unless you can walk on water
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FREEDGUY
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Posted: 29 May 2021 at 7:49pm |
Seemed like it was pretty "instantaneous" from the click of the switch until the bulb was lit  !! Thanks
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DiyDave
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Posted: 29 May 2021 at 8:24pm |
 FREEDGUY wrote:
Seemed like it was pretty "instantaneous" from the click of the switch until the bulb was lit !! Thanks |
Only thing that moves faster is diarrhea! 
Four men go for a job interview. The first one is called into the office, and the boss asks him a question: "What's the fastest thing in the world?" The man thinks for a moment before answering, and finally says, "A thought!" "Interesting answer," says the boss. "Yeah, it just pops in your head immediately," the guy says. He is dismissed from the office, and number 2 comes in. The boss asks the same question, and the man thinks for a moment. "A blink! It happens in a split second!" The boss, satisfied with that answer, calls in the next guy. The boss asks the same question again, and the man thinks about it for a minute. "Light!" He said. "You flip a switch on a wall and the light just comes on immediately." The boss, feeling satisfied with all answers so far, calls in the final guy. He hopes this guy has a great answer because he's torn between the first three. The man sits down and the boss asks, "What's the fastest thing in the world?" The man thinks and thinks and thinks some more, and finally says, "Diarrhea!" "Diarrhea!?" The boss exclaims. "How on earth do you figure diarrhea is the fastest thing in the world?" The man quickly replies, "Well, the other night I got a terrible stomach cramp all of a sudden. I took off running to the bathroom, but before I could think, blink, or turn on a light, I  all over myself!" He was hired on the spot.
Edited by DiyDave - 29 May 2021 at 8:26pm
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Stan IL&TN
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Posted: 29 May 2021 at 8:59pm |
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😳😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
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1957 WD45 dad's first AC
1968 one-seventy
1956 F40 Ferguson
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DMiller
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Joined: 14 Sep 2009
Location: Hermann, Mo
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Posted: 29 May 2021 at 9:10pm |
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Actually Electrons Displace to provide electrical energy from Point A to Point B. Not much actually 'Flows'. AC alternates here at 60 cycles per Second, IOW the current flow switches from Out to In at the supply source 60 times per second so the energy you are using is flowing Both Directions all the time.
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steve(ill)
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Posted: 29 May 2021 at 9:31pm |
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YEP... but he wanted to know how FAST it gets from point A to B.
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Like them all, but love the "B"s.
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Coke-in-MN
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Posted: 30 May 2021 at 12:53am |
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so which is faster AC or DC since electrons flow at approximate speed of light but AC is 60 cycles and reversing but DC flows in a straight line
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Faith isn't a jump in the dark. It is a walk in the light. Faith is not guessing; it is knowing something.
"Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful."
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jaybmiller
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Posted: 30 May 2021 at 6:22am |
AC doesn't 'reverse'.... it's the magnitude (voltage or current) that changes NOT the direction of travel. Here we got '60 cycle' AC, so..in one 'cycle' , you've got 3 points of ZERO voltage and the rest are either positive or negative voltages......usually in the form of a Sine wave.
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3 D-14s,A-C forklift, B-112
Kubota BX23S lil' TOOT( The Other Orange Tractor)
Never burn your bridges, unless you can walk on water
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DMiller
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Posted: 30 May 2021 at 6:58am |
Fact is Yes it reverses, that is the signature of the Sine Wave as the down slope indicates the reverse. Worked Power Station of 21 years, had to understand 'Alternating' current.
Field Rises, peaks then falls to peak low, happens sixty times per second. Biggest issue with AC is that aspect where does reverse creates counter 'flow' conditions and causes its own resistance to delivery. Hysteresis losses due to heat of that resistance is what has become the limiting factor to distance of delivery.
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DaveKamp
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Posted: 30 May 2021 at 10:43am |
Electricity is the 'trading' of electrons from one atom to another. Apparenty they spin around atoms pretty fast... and while there's a few atoms around here, I personally haven't measured one...
We 'assume' electricity moves at the speed of light... and it's probably not a very accurate 'assumption', but for the practical purposes we've used so far, it's been 'good enough'.
The 'velocity assumption' is based on the fact that electricity generates electromotive force (magnetic)... and the most obvious electromitive force we can detect, is light... as electromotive radiation, we can BARELY detect it's velocity... it appears ALMOST instantanious, not from a lightswitch, but from a physical shutter (the lightbulb has 'heating' and 'cooling' time). We DO know that atmosphere can both impede and 'bend' light, as well as refract it into different frequencies... so it isn't perfectly instant.
We know from radio experimentation (transmission and reception from two distant points) that the delay can be measured and from that, velocity estimated.
We also know that electrical and electromotive forces travel at different speeds through different materials. Some are 'better' conductors than others... and finally, we know that supercooling some materials make them even faster (superconductors). With respect to ALTERNATING currents, there's transmission line reactance (inductance and capacitance) which reduces VELOCITY of the transmission media... inductance being the magnetic field that builds around a current-carrying conductor... and distributed capacitance resulting from dielectric contact (air, or insulation...) along it's length. Transmission lines are path-lossy.
But as for raw speed, A good starting point, is around 186,000 miles per SECOND... and it CAN be demonstrated without too much difficulty: On a clear night, I can point my radio antennas at the moon, and transmit my callsign, and I'll hear it bounce off, and come all the way back... about two-and-a-half seconds later. it's about a 239,000 mile trip there, and same back... 438,000ish, that's 438/2.5= 175,000 +/- error... and all the variables in between.
If you had a guy on the moon,with a mirror, and you were on the dark side of the earth, with a mirror, you could flash a boyscout signal between the two, and use a stopwatch... ;-)
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Ten Amendments, Ten Commandments, and one Golden Rule solve most every problem. Citrus hand-cleaner with Pumice does the rest.
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