Energy is not transmitted through the wire
The introduction chapter of "Sound System Engineering, 4th ed." has a section titled "Fields", and in it some quotes that state energy is not transmitted through the wire, rather outside of it. I was taught that electric current travels through the wire and that it's a very factual thing! But...
In this link you can read the section and the quotes. Like these:
<PERSON>, 1882, from his book, “Electrical Papers,” Vol. 1.“Had we not better give up the idea that energy is transmitted through the wire altogether? That is the plain course. The energy from the battery neither goes through the wire one way nor the other. Nor is it standing still, the transmission takes place entirely through the dielectric. What, then, is the wire? It is the sink into which the energy is poured from the dielectric and there wasted, passing from the electrical system altogether.”
<PERSON> in 1898 wrote, “It is important that the student should bear in mind that, although we are accustomed to speak of current as flowing in the wire in one direction or the other, this is a mere form of words. 927
What we call the current in the wire is, to a large extent, a process going on in the space or material outside the wire….”
And also
Those of you who feel that many of the ideas are not mainstream should find a copy of “Standard Handbook for Electrical Engineers” by <PERSON> and <PERSON>…there is a section entitled, “Electromagnetic Wave Propagation Phenomena.”
“The usually accepted view that the conductor current produces the magnetic field surrounding it must be displaced by the more appropriate one that the electromagnetic field surrounding the conductor produces, through a small drain on the energy supply, the current in the conductor. Although the value of the latter may be used in computing the transmitted energy, one should clearly recognize that physically this current produces only a loss and in no way has a direct part in the phenomenon of power transmission.”
There's an interesting analogy in the book: imagine a building with walls and corridors. People travel in the corridors. The circuit lines (wires) are the walls, and the spaces are the corridores. Energy travels in the corridors.
This has been melting my brain. I've searched about the subject, but nothing made it click. I know <PERSON>'s law, and in my mind the conceptual view was: "potential difference from a battery applied in a circuit will make current flow through the wire, and this current will create a magnetic field around it according to <PERSON>".
The question is: if electric current is an abstraction, if energy from a battery does not go from one point to another, what is going on? What's the conceptual view that I should learn and use?
I also found these: * Is electricity really the flow of electrons or is it more involved? * What are the fields produced around a current carrying conductor? * Does electricity flow on the surface of a wire or in the interior? * If the charge on a conductor always resides on the outside, then why does current flow through the interior of a wire? 395