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Visualizing Electricity

demystifyingscience.com

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Re: Visualizing Electricity

#11

Post by EForEndeavour »

mickfaraday wrote: post #7
qqqqquinnnnn wrote: post #4

Really love this. How did you decide on the rotational transmission, rather than electron "flow"?

Momentum transfer is the key idea. Flow is not apparent. Spherical field rotation is actually a decent way to conceive of electron motion: https://www.physics.mcmaster.ca/phys3mm3/notes/whatisspin.pd...

Wait, that paper discusses how the spin and magnetic moment of a single electron arise from energy in the electron's wave field. Where does the paper connect these ideas to the flow of electrical current? Does current really depend on a "spinning" electron interacting with the spin of a neighbouring electron? (I thought that'd only come up in explaining magnetism.) Is quantum mechanical spin necessary at all to understand classical current flow?

On first read, the mental model of atomic-scale gears meshing and turning at different rates (does direction matter? How do you think of amperage in terms of rotating shafts made of meshed gears?) more fraught with simplifying assumptions and unnecessary epicycle-style complications than the conventional hydrodynamic model.

Re: Visualizing Electricity

#12

Post by hammock »

Honest feedback, this didn't really explain electricity for me. What is does is introduce an entirely new analogy for understanding electricity. Unfortunately, most elements of the new analogy are not relatable at all, meaning the analogy has no value. What do I care that the electrons "rotation" means charge and the speed means voltage? Why are they shaped like breathmints, how does that help if they are supposed to be gears?

At least the water and beads analogies help, because they are something I have a previous understanding of.

For what it's worth, I enjoyed the music and the typeface. Made me hang onto watching the video much longer than I would have otherwise. The VO is also good.

Re: Visualizing Electricity

#14

Post by mickfaraday »

EForEndeavour wrote: post #11
mickfaraday wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Momentum transfer is the key idea. Flow is not apparent. Spherical field rotation is actually a decent way to conceive of electron motion: https://www.physics.mcmaster.ca/phys3mm3/notes/whatisspin.pd...

Wait, that paper discusses how the spin and magnetic moment of a single electron arise from energy in the electron's wave field. Where does the paper connect these ideas to the flow of electrical current? Does current really depend on a "spinning" electron interacting with the spin of a neighbouring electron? (I thought that'd only come up in explaining magnetism.) Is quantum mechanical spin necessary at all to under…

The idea is that transfer of momentum between atoms is a good approximation of current. In that sense, the difference in shell momentum, on average, can be thought of as potential or voltage.

Like the hydraulic analogy, this visualization is to help us understand not an exact movie of what's happening. Math may be better for that level of detail, for now. This visualization uses atoms, which is the main advantage over the hydraulic.

Re: Visualizing Electricity

#15

Post by mickfaraday »

hammock wrote: post #12

Honest feedback, this didn't really explain electricity for me. What is does is introduce an entirely new analogy for understanding electricity. Unfortunately, most elements of the new analogy are not relatable at all, meaning the analogy has no value. What do I care that the electrons "rotation" means charge and the speed means voltage? Why are they shaped like breathmints, how does that help if they are supposed to…

Yes, the main advantage over those models is that it uses atoms that are essentially shaped and moving as atoms do.

Perhaps the gearbox of your car is a relatable phenomenon for you. The breath mints are shaped like gears lol.

Re: Visualizing Electricity

#17

Post by Answerawake »

mickfaraday wrote: post #9
ly wrote: post #8

In case the author of the video reads this: I tried to watch it but after 2 minutes I just had to turn it off as I couldn’t handle that music anymore. It’s extremely distracting when you try to listen to what the narrator is explaining. It’s not that I don’t like background music in explanatory videos, but this music is way too loud and complex to not distract. Also, considering the video is uploaded to YouTube, I wo…

Cool. Thanks for the suggestion- i'll pass it along. You can mute the audio and still read the titles. Same info. Also, i'm pretty sure those are other distant atoms, not stars.

Also, stop making the text box slide in and out. This adds nothing and is distracting. Just make it appear and disappear.

Re: Visualizing Electricity

#18

Post by acqq »

ly wrote: post #8

In case the author of the video reads this: I tried to watch it but after 2 minutes I just had to turn it off as I couldn’t handle that music anymore. It’s extremely distracting when you try to listen to what the narrator is explaining. It’s not that I don’t like background music in explanatory videos, but this music is way too loud and complex to not distract. Also, considering the video is uploaded to YouTube, I wo…

> It’s not that I don’t like background music in explanatory videos

And I'm totally against it. It is always distracting to me. If I'd want to have background music I could play it myself, and it would match my choice. The only videos that should have background music is where the music is in any way an important element of the story, e.g. if the topic is the work of an artist or composer. Otherwise, it is distracting.

Re: Visualizing Electricity

#20

Post by mickfaraday »

Answerawake wrote: post #17
mickfaraday wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cool. Thanks for the suggestion- i'll pass it along. You can mute the audio and still read the titles. Same info. Also, i'm pretty sure those are other distant atoms, not stars.

Also, stop making the text box slide in and out. This adds nothing and is distracting. Just make it appear and disappear.

noted.
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