Ben Bradley wrote in message . ..
On 16 Jun 2004 15:01:18 -0700, (apa) wrote:

I was talking to an electrician doing some work in my building and
started asking some questions about AC. My electrical knowledge is
quite limited, but in the course of the conversation, I said something
about the the flow of current reversing direction twice every 60th of
a second. He said "No, the ACTUAL current always flows in one
direction from the hot to the neutral and it's the AMOUNT of current
flowing that alternates." Isn't that the definition of modulated DC,
not AC? I couldn't make any sense of his explanation of what he meant
by "actual current", but he insisted that current flows in ONE
DIRECTION ONLY. I really don't get what he's talking about - but he's
the professional. Can someone fill me in?

I'm trying to interpret that in a way that he's right, but I can't.
You could almost say "power comes out of the hot" but you could just
as well say it comes out of the neutral - you need both connected to
get power.

The "hot" is called the hot because it's the one that has the high
voltage relative to ground - the neutral has (almost) no voltage
compared to ground (because it's acutually connected to ground at the
fuse/breaker box).
But during 1/120th second (in the USA and other places where 60Hz
power is used), current (presuming a resisiive load such as a light
bulb) comes out of the hot and goes into the neutral, and during the
next 120th second current goes into the hot and comes out of the
neutral.
-----
http://mindspring.com/~benbradley

That exactly what I thought. I would have disregarded what he said if
he wasn't an electrician. Thanks for the confirmation.