Yep, exactly why it works so much better over distance than DC.
this post was submitted on 01 Feb 2026
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That's not correct. What you need for long distance is high voltage, and it's easier/cheaper to step up/down AC voltage than DC. If conversion costs were eliminated, DC is actually more efficient.
If you get to even longer distances of over 300+ miles, DC's efficiency becomes worth the additional cost of conversion. There are many HVDC interregional connections.
In an AC system, the pedastal fan in your bedroom is electromagnetically coupled to the turbine at the coal/gas/hydro/nuc power station. They instantly and directly influence each other, and they both are spinning in tandem like two wheels on a car connected by an axel. Slowing the rotation of the fan with your hand technically increases the torque of the turbine, if only by an immeasurably small amount.
Fun Fact: An improperly shielded (or old and deteriorating) fan can be influenced by stray electromagnetic radiation. They'll pick up AM radio signals occasionally, creating an off tone in the fan noise that sounds like a person talking faintly on the other side of the fan.
AC motors are more powerful but also more noisy. You need that power in your kitchen mixer but you need quiet in a fan. Modern WC rooms now have a DC fan.
Steam engine pistons also move back and forth less than a meter at a time, and still could push trains a million kilometers in the forward direction. It's that they're pushing right while moving right and left when moving left. That's like when AC current and voltage are in phase, delivering positive net power. Meanwhile, something that pulls left when moving right is consuming power.
Elections merely facilitate the transfer the power, like (the non-leading edges of?) a drive shaft or cogs.
Even with DC you need a loop (well, a difference).
Carbon fuel one-use mentality where you burn your supply (chemically stored energy) doesn't apply, tho non-rechargeable batteries make it seem so.
non-rechargeable batteries
Yeah, why are they still a thing? Recharchable have all the advantages but more.
Low self discharge. Good for ultra low power devices like remote controls or lights only used on occasion where a rechargeable battery would self discharge faster than the rate of actual use.
Let's hope those paper batteries by Flint (shown at CES) aren't bs marketing (that they truly aren't harmful as waste & are comparable to normal batteries).
It’s even crazier than that. It’s not even the electrons at the “leading edge” it’s the EM field they create even separate the of the wires that actually contain the electrons.
And the follow-up with a physical experiment after the first video started a huge drama.
God I hate that video, he explains everything so badly to the point of completely misinforming viewers. He's talking about a special situation of AC current, but uses DC in the thought experiment. He makes it seem as if the field travels to the load in a direct path and the wires don't matter. No, the EM field is completely based on the wire.
No, the leading edge of the mechanical transfer of power - I was trying to make a faux comparison that electrons would be the inside of the shaft/cog & the fields the leading edges (that transfer the power & moving more).
I mangled the comparison, should have given up on it. Vibes are hard to compare with anything non-vibes.
Great youtubing in the links, that's how you get them views (benefit several creators and spread science)!
(*I just skimmed them for the general vibe, I'm not voicing support in case they are weird ppl, I don't know them.)
Whats crazier is that in direct current individual electrons don't travel at the speed of light through the conductor, but only at roughly 1cm/s.
Or, that thanks to the "skin effect" the current actualy travels in a very thin layer below the outside surface of cconductor. Most of the conductor doesn't transfer power but only maintains the magnetic field to keep the current flowing.
No, skin effect only occurs on higher frequencies. That is why coaxial cabel is invented. But then they realized the energy in coax transfers in a completely different way.
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My power company is charging me that much for nothing but vibes?!
why is everyone in this thread telling me to imagine something
Because imagination is everything- probably Einstein
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So you're admitting that AI data centers vibe pretty hard? Your words!
Technically, computers are running on DC. The PSU is fed by AC but its sole purpose is to convert all the power the computer needs to DC. It's possible to only use DC to power computers and it's probably/apparently more efficient.
The microwave doesn't heat your food, it just vibrates the water.
Heat is kinetic energy and the water is part of your food, so the microwave does heat your food.
Thank you for explaining the joke
What joke?
This is analogous to saying, the blades on a wind turbine don't go anywhere, they simply spin, and yet power is created.
You're just wiggling the saw back and forth, yet the log is eventually halved
The washing machine just spins left then right, left then right, and the clothes come out clean.
imagine a bicycle chain between two sprockets, if you crank it foward and back like 1 inch, over and over again, you can clearly transmit power without the chain links going much of anywhere
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The voltage(electrical equivalent of force) is what travels.
It's analagous to pushing something away from you with a really really really long stick, then pulling it back again. The stick didn't move much but you still affected something far away.
Ad on a DC system, the electrons move dozens of times slower than a person walking. They also don't get anywhere, and power is still delivered.
It's kind of shocking, after a lifetime of assuming electrons whiz through wires at the speed of light, to find out they move so slowly that the speed at which they move is referred to as "electron drift."
It's fun to calculate that from a socket to a light bulb it may take something close to a few hours for one electron to get to the bulb, but even then that's an average. Some electrons don't even get to the light bulb ever.
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Fyi, it isnt fully correct and a lot of electricity related channels were a bit annoyed by it. But overal its a good video hehe
Do you happen to know a good video about the issues?
AlphaPheonix has a few amazing electricity videos including this one where he actually does the experiment.
Veritasium's video was so bad, like 15 channels made response videos within a week. Just search for, "is veritasium wrong about electricity". It's not that he was completely wrong, he was just doing lots of hand waving and making electricity sound like voodoo.
Watch mehdi electoeboom and Steve mould's follow up argument about who is right.
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