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From: touch@gradient.cis.upenn.edu (Joseph D. Touch)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics,sci.energy
Subject: Re: Gold saves energy.
Message-ID: <44194@netnews.upenn.edu>
Date: 5 Jun 91 17:01:21 GMT
References: <sehari.676081817@du248-12.cc.iastate.edu> <1991Jun5.163512.1314@zoo.toronto.edu>
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In article <1991Jun5.163512.1314@zoo.toronto.edu> henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes:
>In article <sehari.676081817@du248-12.cc.iastate.edu> sehari@iastate.edu (Sehari Babak) writes:
>>Having this in mind, I am curious that haw much energy would we save. If
>>we gold plate all Al wires that is used for transportation of the energy?
>
>Uh, what makes you think gold plating will save energy?
>
>To improve the conductivity of the cables, you're going to have to replace
>the bulk material, not just add a plated surface.

Are you sure?  I thought AC travelled on the surface of the wire, not
in the bulk, or is this just a very high frequency phenomenon?  In
that case, plating would help a bit - in fact, you could use the
plating without the interior bulk (ala waveguides).

	Joe Touch
	University of Pennsylvania
	Dept of Computer and Information Science
	touch@cis.upenn.edu