Eli5: Why is it that there are multiple copper wires inside an electric cable and why are they coiled?
In: 68
Supper unintuitive knoladge – electricity does not run in wires. It runs around it and become weaker the further from wire it is. That creates multiple interestibg effects and problems. And most notorious problem – resistance. To reduce resistance it is necessary to increase surface area of wire. If you have one solid wire that its surface area is everyting around it. However if you have many thin wires than you can turn inside space to conductive surface too. It is called cross sectional area.
They are coiled to reduce another problem – magnetic field. If there is electricity than there is magnetic field. Coiling helps to make it “more noisy” and thus weaker. Thherefore precise electronic devices can filter it out from usefull magnetic field carriage.
Wile that true for all kind of wires, the higher voltage – the less cross section is used, because thin wires probe to damage, rips, melts etc
Latest Answers