Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!sunee!rlbell
From: rlbell@sunee.waterloo.edu (Richard Bell)
Subject: Re: Gold saves energy.
Message-ID: <1991Jun6.123311.2142@sunee.waterloo.edu>
Organization: University of Waterloo
References: <sehari.676081817@du248-12.cc.iastate.edu> <1991Jun5.163512.1314@zoo.toronto.edu> <44194@netnews.upenn.edu>
Date: Thu, 6 Jun 1991 12:33:11 GMT
Lines: 16

In article <44194@netnews.upenn.edu> touch@gradient.cis.upenn.edu (Joseph D. Touch) writes:
>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

AC does not use the entire area of the conductor, only the outer two-thirds.
The inner third of the bundle is used for sturctural strength only, and is
replaced with a steel cable.  Because the overhead wire is made up of
individual strands, it would be hard to plate the "outer surface".