Timeline for What changes in the electrons before and after a voltage drop?
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| Apr 13, 2017 at 12:39 | history | edited | CommunityBot |
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| Jan 17, 2016 at 22:31 | vote | accept | 1110101001 | ||
| Jan 17, 2016 at 6:44 | comment | added | CuriousOne | Nothing. The electron doesn't change at all. Potential energy is the ability of the system to perform work on the electron. If the electron doesn't move, no work will be performed. If it does move, it's still the same electron, just in a different state of motion. Relative motion doesn't change physics of objects in motion. | |
| Jan 17, 2016 at 6:37 | comment | added | 1110101001 | @CuriousOne My question is what is the physical difference between that electron that has energy and one that does not. | |
| Jan 17, 2016 at 6:25 | answer | added | anna v | timeline score: 2 | |
| Jan 17, 2016 at 6:05 | answer | added | HolgerFiedler | timeline score: 0 | |
| Jan 17, 2016 at 5:39 | comment | added | CuriousOne | If the electrons travel in free space their velocity will change as they get accelerated by the potential difference (CRT, x-ray tubes, accelerators). In a wire the electrons will accelerate for a little bit, then hit the atomic lattice and release their energy in form of heat. The average electron velocity will be very low because electrons can't travel very far before these lossy collisions happen. At least that's the simplified classical model. In reality it's a little more complicated because of quantum mechanics, but not much more so. | |
| Jan 17, 2016 at 4:52 | comment | added | dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten | What it the world makes you say that? The resistor controls how steep the energy landscape is. That's what I meant by saying that the potential function isn't as simple as that for gravity. You might look at my answer physics.stackexchange.com/a/215807/520 (and the others to that question) for another way to look at these things (specifically how the electric field is modified by the presence of a resistance). | |
| Jan 17, 2016 at 4:46 | comment | added | 1110101001 | @dmckee If it were solely position, however, then the resistance of a resistor would not matter for the voltage drop. | |
| Jan 17, 2016 at 4:40 | comment | added | dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten | The same things changes in the electrical system as in the gravitational system: the electron's position in the system. Mind you, the potential function isn't necessarily as simple as the gravitational potential. Of course, by considering only the intrinsic resistivity of a long uniform wire you can construct a system in which is is as simple. | |
| Jan 17, 2016 at 4:26 | answer | added | knzhou | timeline score: 2 | |
| Jan 17, 2016 at 4:13 | history | asked | 1110101001 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |