UP ELECTR ARTICLES GOOD STUFF NEW SEARCH Google: Search

IN A SIMPLE CIRCUIT, WHERE DOES THE

ENERGY FLOW?
A Collection of Diagrams
William Beaty

Electronics students commonly assume that electrical energy flows inside metal wires. Physics
students know differently! Normally the electrical energy doesn't flow inside of metals. In fact, the
electrical energy being sent out by batteries and generators is located in empty space: it takes the
form of electromagnetic fields surrounding the wires. The diagrams below will show us the details.
While coils will store energy as a magnetic field outside the windings, and while capacitors will store
energy as an electric field in the insulating layer between the metal plates, an electric circuit handles
energy a bit differently. An electric circuit as a whole does both at once: it's both coil and capacitor.
The energy which flows across a circuit is not moving through the interior of the metal wires. Instead
it flows through the space surrounding the metal parts of the circuit. For example, whenever a
battery powers a light bulb, the battery spews electrical energy into space! The electrical energy is
then grabbed firmly by the wires and guided by them. The energy flows parallel to the wires, and
eventually it dives into the light bulb filament. There it drives the metal's charges against the
resisting force of electrical "friction," and the electrical energy gets converted into thermal energy. An
electric circuit is like a duct for electrical energy, but this duct has no walls.

Ads by Google Circuit Flow of Electricity Electricity Door Alarm Circuit

www.SmartTweezers.com
Ads by Google

EM Thermal Analysis
Affordable Solutions
for Design Engineers.
Download a Free Trial!
www.Infolytica.com

NY Electric Saving
Device
Free Installation 5
years Guarantee Up to
35% Quaranteed or
Full Refund
www.ozganelectrick .com

Achieve Renewable Fig. 1 A SIMPLE CIRCUIT

Energy A battery is connected to a resistor such as a light bulb. The battery
Geothermal Solar and
Wind Commercial and converts its chemical fuel into waste products, and the resistor gets hot.
Residential
www.AchieveRenewable.com

Solar Energy
Learn about saving
energy from the
experts. Enterprise

converted by Web2PDFConvert.com
wide savings!
schneider-electric.com

Q-MATIC Queuing
Solutions
Improve Customer
Flow Management and
increase staff
productivity
www.q-m atic.us

Fig. 2 THE CONDUCTIVE PATH: CURRENT

All conductive materials contain movable charges. The resistor and
the battery's electrolyte both are conductive. When we include them
with the wires, we can see that an electric circuit is a complete circle
which is full of "fluid" charge. It acts like a liquid flywheel; a flywheel
hidden inside a closed ring of pipe.

Fig. 3 THE MAGNETIC FIELD CAUSED BY THE CURRENT

LOOP
A circular electric current is an electromagnet. The magnetic field-lines
form rings around the conductors. Note that I've slightly tilted the circles
to make them visible. In reality, we should be looking at them edge-on.
(Also: note that the physics name for the magnetic field is "B-field".)

converted by Web2PDFConvert.com
Fig. 3A THE MAGNETIC FIELD CAUSED BY THE CURRENT
LOOP
Here's a better view of the above circuit... the three-dimensional
oblique view.
To be more accurate, we need to draw more than just two patterns.
Between the two patterns above, draw a third. Then between each of
those draw more and more. The end result looks like "tubes" of
magnetic flux surrounding the wires.

Fig. 4 TWO CHARGED CONDUCTORS: VOLTAGE

Everything connected to one battery terminal acquires the same
electrical potential (voltage.) The circuit acts like two separate
conductors, one with a positive charge imbalance and one with
negative.

converted by Web2PDFConvert.com
Fig. 5 THE ELECTRIC FIELD CAUSED BY THE OPPOSITE
CHARGES
The two charged wires act like the plates of a capacitor. "Force lines"
of e-field spew out of one charged conductor and dive into the other.
This is a side view of the e-field in the plane of the circuit. In a full 3-D
view we'd see the lines spreading outwards in radial star-shapes from
each wire.

Fig. 5A THE ELECTRIC FIELD CAUSED BY THE OPPOSITE

CHARGES
Again, here's a 3D oblique view. The two halves of the circuit act as
opposite-charged wires with e-field flux connecting them. As with
figure 3A we need to draw a third pattern between the two above, then
draw more between those until the whole wire is covered with bent
sheets of electrostatic flux which arcs between the wires.

converted by Web2PDFConvert.com
Fig. 6 E-FIELD AND B-FIELD TOGETHER

Fig. 6A E-FIELD AND B-FIELD TOGETHER

The 3D oblique view of the two fields. Add more and more patterns
between the two shown above, until empty space is packed full of
"hair." Note that most of the flowing energy lies between the two
wires... but quite a bit also surrounds the "cable pair" as a whole. Also
note that the E and B flux lines are always at 90 degrees to each other.
When we say that E and B in light waves are always perpendicular, the
above diagram shows what such a thing looks like.

converted by Web2PDFConvert.com
Fig. 7 THE ENERGY FLOW (POYNTING FIELD)
Electromagnetic energy flows out of the battery and into the empty
space around the circuit. It flows parallel to the connecting wires, then it
dives into the resistor. The field of energy flow is found by multiplying
the e-field by the b-field (E x B vector cross-product.)

Fig. 8 ENERGY FLOW FIELD WITH E-FIELD IN GRAY

Note that the energy always flows perpendicular to the lines of e-field

converted by Web2PDFConvert.com
Fig. 9 ENERGY FLOW WITH B-FIELD IN GRAY
Note that the energy always flows perpendicular to the lines of b-field
too.

Fig. 10 A SIMPLE CIRCUIT?

When all the separate invisible phenomena are displayed together,
you can see why "electricity" might be a bit hard to understand. And
this diagram only shows a two-dimensional slice; a sort of side view of
the fields. The real fields are 3D and volume-filling, so an accurate
drawing would look like a black glob of hairs.

SEE ALSO:
mit.edu, TEAL animated field diagrams:
Magnetic fields
e-fields
Faraday induction: dynamic magnetic fields
EM and waves
Guided tour
Right-angle circuitry (bill b)
'Electricity' is not energy (bill b)
Bulb w/Lightswitch xmission line anim.
Understanding Electricity and Circuits: What the Text Books Don't Tell You (pdf)
Unifying electrostatics and electric circuits Chabay & Sherwood 1999 (.PDF) ,(arcv)
Roy McCammon's GIFs of electric and magnetic fields in EM waves:
http://www.armory.com/~rstevew/Public/Tutor/RoyMcC_Waves/index.html
How can longwave EM pass through tiny holes? (bill b)

Poynting-flow diagrams are *extremely* rare in physics texts, and the majority of physics
instructors seem unaware that they exist. Perhaps the reason is that, as children, all
physicists were taught that energy flows *inside* the wires. Childhood science
misconceptions are extremely difficult to cure. They frequently remain unexamined, and often
persist well into adulthood. For example, Feynman mentions the Poynting-flow concept in
"The Feynman Lectures," Chapter 27, and performs EM-field energy flow analysis on
capacitors and resistors, but he doesn't analyze 2-wire transmission lines, nor does he link
the components together into a continuous system as with my figure 7 above. Worse, at one
point he bad-mouths the whole concept, and asserts that we should not change our original
viewpoint, but instead suggests that we continue to assume that the energy flows inside the
copper! Feynman? Counsiling dishonesty rather than harnessing this "alternate toolkit?"
Amazing. (And ...doesn't he know that the speed of light inside solid copper, the speed which
causes Skin Effect phenomena, is down in the meters per second range?) If the
misconception that "energy flows inside wires" had such a deleterious effect on an honest
free-thinker like Feynman, think how much trouble any more conventional minds would have
with it.

converted by Web2PDFConvert.com
Here's another version of my figure 7: page 417, Fig 10-19, found in:
ELECTROMAGNETICS 2nd Ed., John D. Kraus & Keither R. Carver, McGraw-Hill
1973
This is interesting, because it shows one place where poynting vector energy flow is a
crucial idea: Antenna Design! Kraus Electromagnetics is essentially an antenna design book
aimed at physics students.

Electric Transformers Power and distribution transformers Vasile, over 60 years in the market Vasile.com.ar
Marine Electric Supply Blue Sea Systems Supercenter Great on-line prices! www.polarismarineelectricsupply.com
AC Power System Testing Outstanding Prices on AC Power System Testing and Maintenance www.alpinepowersystems.com

http://amasci.com/elect/poynt/poynt.html
Created and maintained by Bill Beaty . Mail me at: .

converted by Web2PDFConvert.com