Yahoo Answers is shutting down on May 4th, 2021 (Eastern Time) and the Yahoo Answers website is now in read-only mode. There will be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services, or your Yahoo account. You can find more information about the Yahoo Answers shutdown and how to download your data on this help page.

?
Lv 7
? asked in Science & MathematicsEngineering · 8 years ago

Is an isolated electric field w/o its magnetic component emitted by household wiring ?

Does household wiring emit an electric field?

Household witring is doubled and hence the magnetic field component of the current is suppressed. Is the electric field component also suppressed or does it radiate into the local space ?

. I want to emphasize the question - if the electric field can be divorced from ther magnetic component... The current flows in the AC wiring is doubled and in OPPOSITION, hence the two magnetic fields generated by the two wires will mutually suppress each other. This is unlike ther flow in a coil where the fields in the windings will mutually reinforce each other.

This means that the intention in household wiring is to suppress the magnetic field. However the electric field is not directionally organised as the magnetic field component , it is a right angles to the flow, away from the wire,. hence it is apparently not mutually self suppressing, but rather self supporting.. this is the point of the question. Since it is not apparently self suppressing then it would follow that it is free to radiate from the wire in full strength unlike the magnetic field which to repeat IS self-suppressing.

This is the essential question.

Update:

Additional Details

doesnt anyone get it ? I am talking about the separation of the magnetic field and the electric field. If two conductors are carrying a current in opposite directions, the magnetic field is SUPPRESSED, ie., N to N, and S to S. This arrangement will suppress the magnetic component but it does not suppress the electric field componernt according the field geometry. This is my contention and I want to verify this. The electric field surrounding a wire is at right angles to the wire and away from it and therefore cannot be self suppressing, see ? Do yiou agree with this postulate ? If you do not agree with it. then please explain why and how !!

Moreover, the electric field is not polarised in the same way as the magnetic field. The field in boh wires is oriented in the same way, ie., away from the conductors. and are therefore mutually self-supporting

0 seconds ago

3 Answers

Relevance
  • Tom
    Lv 7
    8 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    Electric and magnetic fields are essentially the same thing --only seen from different angles. That's why they are called ELECTROMAGNETIC fields. you cant have one without the other, A moving electron produces a magnetic field at right angles to it. a moving magnetic field moves electrons in a conductor. They are LINKED. You suppress the magnetic field and you suppress the flow of electrons.

    COILS work to stabilize current---preventing --or at least resisting changes in flow(once established)----when the current decreases, the magnetic lines of flux tend to cut the wires around it, generating more current. If the current rises, the magnetic fields expand, generating a current in the opposite direction--suppressing the increase.---

    Two wires parallel to each other, carrying current in opposite directions will tend to cancel each other out via opposite magnetic interactions--this would be especially true in an AC current interaction which would actively generate opposite currents in the other wires.

    Source(s): Scientist.
  • 8 years ago

    I believe you have this somewhat backwards. Consider the magnetic field as a circular path around the wire, where you can use your 'right hand rule' to understand the field direction. If you align your thumb in the direction of current flow, then the field is orthogonal (right angles) to the current and would wrap around the wire in the sam direction that your fingers would curl. It is true that the current in the wires would flow in opposite directions, but this doesn't cause the magnetic field to be suppressed. Rather, the electric field that would be set up is largely between the two wires, so radiation is limited. The magnetic field would still expand and collapse about the wired pair as current flows.

    Source(s): MSEE
  • 8 years ago

    Q1: Is an ... electric field ... emitted?

    A1: Yes.

    Q2: Does ... wiring emit...?

    A2: Yes.

    Your comment: Household ... suppressed...

    My comment: suppressed, yes, eliminated, no.

    Q3: Also suppressed?

    A3: Only where local code or practise requires it to be shielded.

    If you have a typical North American 120V 15A branch circuit, with a hot black wire and a white return, (and bare copper in between), running vertically up and down a 2x4 in a wall, let's suppose black is on the left, and white on the right...

    When the circuit is fully loaded, and during the positive half cycle of 60 Hz, a positive 120V rms appears on the black wire, and 0v on the white. Assuming conventional flow, from a breaker panel in the basement, current will flow up the black wire, through some load in an upper floor, and back down the white wire.

    During this positive half cycle, there will be a shortage of electrons on the black wire, and an relative abundance of them in the white. This creates an electric field, just like in a capacitor. Any time you have a potential difference, separated by some dielectric (including air), you'll have an electric field.

    As for your assumption that the magnetic field is suppressed by alternate directions of current, you are correct at a distance, but, at some close proximity to the cable, you will find that if you are closer to the black wire than the white, the magnetic field from the black will be stronger than the magnetic field from the white.

    This is why electric guitars need "hum bucker" pickups, to reduce the effect of fields from surrounding wiring.

    Philosophically, to debate "intention" and willful suppression of magnetic fields, you'd need to know the will of someone like James Clerk Maxwell, or Thomas Edison.

    I suspect it's more likely that cables were run in pairs as a matter of practical convience, delivering phase and return, without having to drill a second set of holes for a second set of cable. It makes wiring in parallel a whole lot easier too.

Still have questions? Get your answers by asking now.