Wire Current

Representative charges inside a straight 100 mm copper conductor. The readout is real drift speed. The picture is sped up.

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Conductor length 100 mm. Drag to orbit, scroll to zoom.

Electrons

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Area: —
Current density: —
Skin depth: —
Skin effect: —
Conventional arrow: +X
Time scale: 200×
AC on screen: —

Conductor

Diameter 1.00 mm

Current

Amount 1.00 A

Frequency 60.0 Hz

Time scale 200×

Section view Pause

Dots are representative, not a real carrier count. Current changes drift speed. Time scale speeds that drift up and slows an AC cycle so 60 Hz is visible. Skin effect crowds dots outward only on AC, and only when skin depth is smaller than the outer radius. At 60 Hz that depth is about 8.4 mm.