Is current carrying wire electrically charged?

Answer 1

Electric Current: Measured in amperes (coulombs-per second), it is defined as the rate at which electric charge travels through a conductor.

Electric Charge: the quantity of unbalanced electricity in a body (either positive or negative) and construed as an excess or deficiency of electrons ... measured in Coulombs.

Electric Potential: the difference in electrical charge between two points in a circuit expressed in volts

A current-carrying wire is not charged in the classical sense; however, it often has some potential relative to ground or earth. This is because the two ends of the conductor are tied to something other than a true 'earth' connection - thus allowing the potential of the conductor as a whole to 'float' at something other than ground.

As soon as someone touches the 'live' portion of the conductor, they supply the path to ground and thereby can carry some of the current ... resulting in a possible shock.

Answer 2

No, a current carrying wire is not charged. That's why the current is flowing. All the copper atoms in the wire have exactly the same number of electrons as protons in their nuclei. Because the positive and negative charges exactly balance the wire is said to be neutral. Exactly the same number of electrons enter one end of the wire and exit the other end. That's the official party line and the correct answer for any undergraduate physics exam you're likely to take.

There is an alternative view which correctly points out that copper is not a perfect conductor and that a small voltage drop will exist along the length of the current carrying wire. This voltage drop implies that positive and negative charge cancellation are not exactly equal everywhere along the wire's length and that there must be a slight excess of electrons to create the potential difference between the two ends of the wire. Some extremely nitpicking perfectionists could thus argue that the wire does carry some charge, but this is a minority view. For all practical purposes a current carrying wire carries no net charge.

Answer 3

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Everything is electrically charged. The only thing that matters is what the charge is relative to some other thing. Wires do have some resistance, so even if there is a spot where the charge is equal to ground, if it has a current going through it the charge will be different than ground at all other points

Answer 4

Yes, but not by very much. Why? Because the wire acts like a concentric tube capacitor along it's length, with the other "plate" being off at infinity. There are radial E feld lines coming out of any conductor (this was a controversial discovery made by Michael Faraday 200 years ago), in addition to the axial E field lines (which move the electric current along).

But, the amount of charge stored is quite small per unit length; 18 gauge wire with 0.020 inch vinyl insualtion has about 10 pF of capacitance per foot, not much to speak of really. So, to answer your question, yes, it is charged, but not by very much.

Answer 5

if we are assuming cylindrical wire (maybe the word wire implies cylindrical, I don't know) I would say no due to the nearly equilibrium movement of electrons and protons (in an electrical standpoint). If we are talking about rectangular piece then yes, it is charged due to a phenomena called the Hall effect (caused by the resulting magnetic field)

Answer 6

I would say that it's charged because if it's carrying current then the current is due to a voltage in the line. It's "hot", so you could tap into it in series and/or parallel and get some juice from it. If it wasn't "charged" there would be no voltage.

Answer 7

Yes, if there is electrical current in the wire then some voltage has been applied to the wire and its "charged"

Answer 8

I am 76 years old and I always consider that all wires are hot and u will not be disappointed or killed. If there is current flowing there is a potential to kill u. Most transformer configurations are such that it will reference to ground . The neutral can carry current and u can touch it and because the potential is near ground it will not hurt u,but if the circuit is broken while u are touching it could kill u.

Answer 9

No. It's not charged. The number of electrons going into it is equal to the number coming out so there is no net change in charge.