what is the difference between the two wires in an AC circuit, if the current is constantly switching direction? E.g. why do they say to always put the switch on the “hot” side?
In: Engineering
Lets say you have a waterwheel. Water comes down continuously in one direction to turn a wheel for you to do useful work. That’s like direct current.
Lets say instead of water continuously flowing in one direction, someone is creating waves in an unflowing stream.You have a float that bobs up and down in the water that you use to do useful work, like say every time the float moves up, you have it push the teeth of a gear up a step, then when it moves down, it moves down a tooth on the gear. That’s like alternating current.
Moving the float takes a bit of energy away from the wave. It won’t be quite as high as it was further down from the wave maker, but it still has energy. That’s the ‘cold’ side of the wire in this analogy. It doesn’t have the same peak voltage or wave height as the hot side, but it still has energy that can be put to use further down.
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