I may have misrepresented the way that pendulums move in my last post.
I was thinking about it, and this may be a more helpful way to address your question. Pretend that you are an electron crowded with other electrons in a wire. What gives wires, and all conductors, the ability to carry current, AC or DC, is the ability of electrons to move easily in the wire. Materials that electrons can’t move easily in are called insulators. From what I understand, the source of electricity, AC or DC, creates what is called a gradient in the wire. Basically, a gradient, in this situation, is a buildup of force directed toward one side of the wire. It would be a good idea for you to check what I am saying with an authority on you lab before accepting what I am saying as theory. In other words, accept what I am saying at your own risk. I don’t know if it would be correct to say that one end of the wire is more crowded with electrons than the other end, though. A more accurate description may be that it is magnetic repulsions that move the electrons along. I don’t know how much, if anything, electronic collisions have to do with electron motion. In the wire, the electrons, at all times, might be, for the most part, in DC current, direct current, directed by force to only one end of the wire, always travelling in the same direction. I think that the electrons have been observed to have a tendency to create what is called an equilibrium. The electrons create an equilibrium by adjusting their position in the wire – so that the electrons on one end of the wire move toward the other end. I’ve heard that many sources of DC are batteries - though I don’t know if this is always the case. So, in a DC current, the electron group you belong to is travelling down the wire mostly in one direction, perhaps – for some reason, toward a chemical in a battery that is relatively electron deficient. The DC volt meter measures how the crowd of electrons you belong to move in the wire.
In the case of AC, the forces directing the electrons alternate. The electrons in AC are at first directed toward one end of the wire, and then directed toward the other end. So, in AC, alternating current, the direction that the crowd of electrons is travelling in alters. I’ve heard that many sources of AC are generators - though I don’t know if this is always the case. So, imagine yourself in a wire travelling first in one direction, and then again in the other direction, and then again in the other direction, and then again in the other direction, perhaps being driven by magnetic forces created by a generator - such as a generator at a dam or on a windmill. After travelling back and forth so much you keep on passing the same place again and again and again. What the DC volt meter may be measuring by staying around zero is that you haven’t really gone anywhere - just passed the same place many times. Though, you’ve moved a lot - so this may be confusing. Sure, you don’t go anywhere when you’re pacing back and forth, but if you pace a little further in each direction, you might be considered to be going to and from different locations, like to and from school or your job, day after day after day. What defines the difference between pacing and commuting? Half a cycle of AC current, though very brief and short to us, might have an important physical effect on particles - even though the DC voltmeter doesn’t register. If you want to learn more about the way that needles on DC volt meters work, you might want to look up motors, because I think that some types of DC volt meters are essentially motors.
So, my question for you is, as an electron, how can you travel more efficiently - considering that some people believe that we are in an energy crisis?
Please remember to check what I wrote before accepting anything as theory. This may help explain the difference between a power meter and a volt meter.