Wikipedia article on electron drift velocity error?

Question

At the end of the Wikipedia article for Electron Drift velocity at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drift_velocity, it claims "If the wire was 1 meter long, (assuming 18 Gauge copper wire) and 3 amps was flowing through it, it would consume as much energy as a 150Watt light bulb. (Verry rough calculation)".

How can that possibly be true? Using P=(I^2)R, the power dissipated by that 1 meter length of wire (R=.02463 ohms/meter) should be 3*3*.02463 = .22 watts, which sounds much more reasonable. 

Am I misreading the article? Is the writer claiming something else?

? · Accepted Answer

Yep, it looks like a wiki-error, but I had trouble following the connection between drift velocity and power dissipation; I like your analysis much better.

These things DO happen.  I have occasionally corrected a Wikipedia article.

gintable · Answer

I would agree that that statement is incorrect.

here are some back-ups:
http://www.mogami.com/e/cad/wire-gauge.html
http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=0.0209*1*3%5E2&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

I don't know what the writer was really trying to claim.  The correct answer is 0.1881 Watts

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Wikipedia article on electron drift velocity error?

2 Answers