eli5: how does AC power provide power when it’s just shifting back and forth? Don’t you need to have current going in one direction

Question

eli5: how does AC power provide power when it’s just shifting back and forth? Don’t you need to have current going in one direction

In: 67

Answer 1

Does current go one way in DC power? Electric cable is not a garden hose where you can cut the end and let the power flow out.

For DC power you have two wires, one for plus one for minus, in one current is toward load, the other away from load. In single phase AC you also have two wires, but instead of saying one wire is always plus and the other minus it switches constantly. [https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/uploads/articles/direct-and-alternating-current-ac-dc.png](https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/uploads/articles/direct-and-alternating-current-ac-dc.png)