Re: Simple electricity question.
Posted by Pasti on Dec 10, 2002 at 05:46
(64.10.124.76)Re: Simple electricity question. (AC)
First of all, the Cu wire may not get depleted at all.Depending on its size,its velocity, and the magnetic field,at some point the Lorentz force will be balanced by the electric field that develops in the wire due to electron displacement,and any further electron displacement will cease.Since the wire is thin, according to what you say, it will have a large electrical resistence, and this balance may occur quite fast.
If the setup is such that this ballance isn't attained, what happens is the following:you build up an electric field in the wire so large that at some point you wil get an electrical discharge between the wire and the ground charge sink.Now if you assume that your experiment takes place in idealized conditions(you must very carefully formulate your conditions, because of the existance of the ground charge sink), you will simply deplete the copper most likely of the conduction electrons.If the magnetic field is raised to unrealistically high values,you will be able to actually destroy the copper wire by electron and ion displacement, even if you keep it thermostated (by the way, this means you must also have a heat sink in the system).
It is hard to believe that you will be able to accelerate electrons to energies high enough to produce nuclear reactions by electron collision in the Cu lattice.I haven't done any calculations, but chances are you will destroy the lattice before the electrons become energetic enough to produce nuclear reactions.As for the experimental implementation of this ideea, because of the vacuum enclosure and the ground charge sink, and the limitation of the heat transfer to the heat sink,I don't think you will ever get past the plasma discharge due to the electric field buildup in the wire.
Does this answer your question?