In domestic current-carrying wires, there are many thin copper wires inside the plastic insulation. Why is that so? Why can’t there be a single thick copper wire carrying the current instead of so many thin ones?
In: Engineering
Single thick wires do exist. They are less flexible though and break when you bent them too often, at least when they are thicker than a certain size (and they need a certain size to not overheat when carrying some amps).
I’m not sure about the english terms but we call single wire ones “Bell wires” (YSTY) here.
Also for high frequency applications having more than one wire helps to prevent “whirl currents” where magnetic fields send electrons into spirals that cause extra losses. The thinner each wire the less space they have for these whirls.
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