| Veritasium's video got my only down-vote of the year because he gave the wrong picture to people. At first order the bulk of the energy follow the wire like a train on its rails. Sure you could put a windmill turbine one meter next to the train and the wind from the train passing will make it turn immediately, but no one would argue about that the wind carry most of the energy. It works this way because the electrons are stuck on the wire like a train is stuck on its rails. The Electro-Magnetic field on the other hand like the wind is free to permeate space. What is important to understand is that electrons and EM-field are two-distinct things that are coupled together. Derek's video tried to explain transmission line theory, but didn't do the experiment while making grandiose claims about a fictional setup. Kudos to alpha phoenix for doing the experiment. Given that Derek recently created multiple "debate" videos, and that he is more interested in the way to teach Science and how to reach a lot of people than by Science itself, it feels like he probably has engineered this controversy himself for views as a meta-experiment. A lot of video responses from unknown youtubers show a better understanding than the original.
For example you can see a numerical simulation of the electro magnetic fields (with Ansys) https://youtu.be/aqBDFO1bEs8?t=364 that show how electricity move (the separation distance between the wire there is only a few centimeters). The problem though is interesting if you try to understand how exactly the energy transfer is happening : Is it capacitive coupling, Is it inductive coupling, Is it EM radiation ? Which one exactly is the dominant term ? Where exactly are the electrons ? How are the electrons interacting with the field ? How can you shield it to isolate and show the various effects (magnetic shielding, electrical shielding) ? |