The Big Misconception About Electricity

At least this much is clear(er) after reading through  the comments:P=IV and all the rest of the equations is still the same.

".... it is absolutely true that the electric and magnetic fields carry the energy – the current does not – but when one takes the spatial integration over the Poynting vector, it always reproduces the power law P=IV. The fields carry the energy, but the current generates it. You can change those fields in a million different ways and the circuit will behave the same."

That should have been explained in the video  instead of making this big hoopla about nothing really so new and exciting.

@imhififan 

I (foolishly) took the vid at face value and didn't dig any deeper.  Reading the comments on YouTube is rather eye-opening. It's not going to change anything I
do concerning wiring on my gear.  

Much appreciated that the comments here didn't get all twisted up and spiral down.

Also, this vid really struck a nerve with his audience as there are over 47,000 comments.  Wow.

Regards, barts

@teo_audio you make some very interesting points and I especially like your dive into the concept of learning and hearing and learning to hear. I agree that in both fields people are able to advance. I know that since I have taken up this hobby my ability to hear has increased. I don't think this ability to learn in either fields will be equal for all however as there exist physical limitations among individuals. I have one ear canal that is of much smaller size than the other; is this difference going to hinder me over someone with nearly symetrical ears? The outward bend of one ear is different than the other therefore it won't gather sound exactly the same. The point being I think there are some who would be more 'golden ear' than others.

I finally watched this video through and it really had me questioning my understanding of electricity.  It actually took some time for me to wrap my head around the theory of his version on "how electricity really works".

Waking up today, I have a different idea.  If his theory is true, then the size of the wire doesn't matter because it's not the part that carries the energy.  If that is the case, why do fuses blow with too much current and other issues such as "ohms lay" stated above by apogeum.

I don't buy into everything the video is saying.  You still need a large enough wire/conductor for a certain amount of current/energy.  He is completely right when he states "the electrons generated at the power plant are NOT the same as the electrons you are using at your house power outlet".  Current is transferred using electro-magnetic force.  This is the same electro+magnetic force that is transferred using magnetic energy in transformers (where there is absolutely no direct wire connection between input and output).

However, part of what he is saying could have an effect.  There "could" be "magnetic fields" outside of the wire and these magnetic fields could be what "pushes" the electrons forward that flow across the molecules of the metal wire itself (essentially electrons inside the wire). ==BUT== the current is still being transferred inside of the wire, which means the type and size of wire is still a critical element of how the current is transferred.

I'll bring up a previous conversation I had over in the diyaudio.com forums.  There was a question where guy was asking if it was worth it to do a balanced interconnect.  I remember reading something like this elsewhere, so I stated balanced can be better because the cable has 2 conductors where the exact same signal is being passed, but in inverted polarity/directions.  I also stated that this created a "hysteresis" between the two conductors.  I basically got called an idiot and was laughed out of the thread.  Ugh, okay.  Understandable.  Pretty much 99% of the crowd there is "if you get measure it, it doesn't exist".

There definitely are magnetic fields around the current in a wire. This is why it is called electro-magnetism. The two go together. Whenever a magnetic field crosses a wire it induces a current in that wire. This is how electricity is generated in the first place, transmitted long distances at high voltage then stepped down with transformers, how cartridges generate a signal, on and on. This is also how antennas work, including the one in your cell phone. This is why RFI is such a problem. On and on.

This used to be the kind of thing they taught in school. Grade school. We would put iron filings on a sheet of paper, hold a magnet under it, watch the filings line up along the magnetic field lines. Then wrap a wire around a nail, attach to a battery, see the same thing with this electro-magnet.

They didn't teach you this in school?