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

To do “work”, in the physics sense, the voltage and current have to be going the same way. In AC, instantaneously in time, they are (if you have a high power factor load). Integration over an AC cycle, the AC is doing real work. When the voltage is negative, the current is also negative, so the (instantaneous) power is positive.