tonyhrx has got me thinking... and I don't expect it to end well
OK: so electrical current flows from positive to negative; meanwhile, the electrons flow from negative to positive.

Electrons have mass. Not much, but some. They'll be influenced by gravity.

Presumably, then, this means that they flow downhill just a tiniest bit faster. pari passu, this implies that current flows a little bit faster uphill.

So here's my ignorant question: would it be more efficient to build power stations in valleys?
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Fri 19 Mar 2010, 14:43, 14 replies)

Yes,
In the sense that you wouldn't have to transport all the building materials to the top of a hill.

No in the sense that we use alternating current in this country so the electrons / charge / holes / current will be going in both directions.
( Bartleby A dead man on vacation, Fri 19 Mar 2010, 14:49, closed)

Ah, yes.
Alternating current. The nemesis of all my engineering plans!

*shakes fist*
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Fri 19 Mar 2010, 15:19, closed)

Mwahahaha.
Got you with my AC logic
( Bartleby A dead man on vacation, Fri 19 Mar 2010, 17:43, closed)

Even DC wouldnt work
You need a complete circuit, any gain on the downhill wire would be lost in the uphill wire. As for whether gravity would actually have an effect, I think it would, but vanishingly small.


quick order of magnitude calculation:

Energy change of an electron over 1m in height (at earth's surface)= mgh ~ 10^-29 J
Energy change of an electron over 1volt = qv ~ 10^-19 J

So 10 orders of magnitude different even in a fairly weak field (1 volt per metre), between the terminals of a 9 volt battery, this would come out as 10^-32 for the gravitational field and 10^-18 for the electromagnetic field

Not sure what the situation would be on a neutron star (the gravity is strong enough for the gravitational effect to trump the electrostatic effect), but have a feeling that the point where the gravity becomes strong enough the be noticeable will be the point where the matter becomes neutronium (feel free to correct me any more advanced physicsy types reading this)
( Tedium Alduce me to interlow myself., Sun 21 Mar 2010, 19:29, closed)

I don't know where to start with this
congratulations!
( Ungersven would support SpankyHanky's patreon, Fri 19 Mar 2010, 15:08, closed)

No. Nor I.
I'm not a scientiest, but I think that I'm reasonably scientifically literate. Yet, just sometimes, my brain goes a bit weird and I have moments like this.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Fri 19 Mar 2010, 15:21, closed)

I don't know the answer...
... but I admire the question.
(gordonjcp, Fri 19 Mar 2010, 15:34, closed)

Gah! Now I have to go and do Science!

The current isn't going to flow any "faster", as in with any more speed.
But if the electron flow is affected by gravity there should be less resistance in the cable to current in one direction.

This can easily be tested.
Get 1m of wire, apply a known DC voltage (1 volt would make ths sums easiest) and measure the current flow in various orientations.

1) Horizontal +end North
2) Horizontal +end South
3) Horizontal +end East
4) Horizontal +end West
5) Horizontal +end Up
6) Horizontal +end Down

I think you're going to need a very senstitive meter to detect any difference.

Another test might be to measure the voltage difference between the ends of a vertically held wire to see if all the electrons have sunk to the bottom...
( DukeEuphoria Comes highly reccomended, Fri 19 Mar 2010, 16:40, closed)

Your last test would not work
The potential difference would be the same, but the distribution would be non linear. You would need to take the PD at various points along the wire when horizontal or vertical, to see if the distribution changed.

What do you think?
( Bartleby A dead man on vacation, Fri 19 Mar 2010, 17:41, closed)

Easy.
Turn it up the other way really quickly.
( argyleblanket The man on the roof works for me, Fri 19 Mar 2010, 17:58, closed)

Electrostatic forces trump gravitational ones.
Hold out a tennis ball in your hand and let go.

It falls due to the gravitational forces between it and the earth.

The floor stops the ball falling. This is due to the electrostatic repulsion between the electrons in the molecules of the ball and the floor.

The other electrons in the wire will exert forces many magnitudes higher than anything gravity can come up with.
(champagnerocker, Fri 19 Mar 2010, 18:18, closed)

Oh, absolutely.
But, still, there must be some impact, mustn't there, even if it's vanishingly small?
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Fri 19 Mar 2010, 19:34, closed)

The speed of the electrons is almost irrelevant.
It's the general likleyhood of the majority of electrons having changed their waveform to favour one end more than the other that matters, or something... I knew I started that degree in Physics for a reason :-(
(Me, I'm not... in any way intoxicated, Fri 19 Mar 2010, 18:39, closed)

This reminds me
of an experiment Richard Feynman allegedly did as an undergrad.
The question was, a sprinkler (think S shaped) rotates clockwise due to the water coming out at a certain angle etc etc, so what happens is you use the sprinkler to suck up water in a submerged situation: which way will it spin. As a theoretical exercise they would argue about it one and the other, and come up with very convincing explanations why it would rotate anticlockwise, and equally plausible explanations why it would spin clockwise.
So one day Feynman does the experiment. He sticks an improvise sprinkler into a huge vat of water, turns on the pump, and half destroys a lab in the process.
And the answer by experiment? It doesn't spin at all, because it is just a bent pipe sucking up water.
( Sextant goes to him is emotionally erect, on this day, Sat 20 Mar 2010, 4:51, closed)

easy
You need water for cooling, this comes from rivers which are in valleys. Much less efficient to hoik all the water up hill than the electricity...
(sugar_tits, Sun 21 Mar 2010, 0:04, closed)

.

( parttimedogfish is a Born-Again Reincarnationist, Sun 21 Mar 2010, 20:05, closed)